Monday, July 8, 2013

A Sticky Situation

The other day, I broke out the fabric blade for my Silhouette to diy some art for Caroline's nursery. The success of that project gave me more confidence, so today I tried to cut vinyl.

Several months ago while I was at Joann's, I happened upon these 12 by 18 inch sheets of adhesive backed vinyl. Each one only cost a couple bucks, so I grabbed a navy blue one with plans of trying to cut it with the Silhouette. Fast forward 6 months and I finally got around to it.

Again, this is not the Silhouette brand vinyl, but it seemed to work just fine for my machine. Inspired by pinterest (of course) I decided to make a little sign for the front door.
 I purchased a font from the Silhouette store called "LD Charming Bold." Then, to make the letters connect, I chose the "Cut Edge" option in the cutting settings.
The vinyl had an adhesive back, so I peeled that off and positioned it on the door. The best part is that you can keep peeling and fixing the placement until you're happy with where it landed... or until you get too frustrated and just give up! Adding the welcome sign also nudged me to update the wreath on the door. I already had the yarn wrapped wreath hanging. All I did was cut a few artificial flowers down and stuck them through the styrofoam. So simple!
Here's Simon guarding the house. That's his favorite perch! I would love to paint the front door, but Bill and I can't agree on a color. The house has a ton of green accents, so we don't want to bite off a huge project. We'd probably have to paint this door, the real front door, all of the shutters, and the mailbox. I'm not sure I'm up for all of that!

Since I had the vinyl and the Silhouette out and fired up, I decided to jazz up the laundry room door also.
Super creative, I know. Before Caroline was born, Bill updated the whole laundry room. I should have taken pictures to share then, but I didn't. Now its full of laundry, so I'll get to that another day!
You might be thinking, where was the baby while I was fiddling around with these projects. Here she is - napping in her swing! That's her BFF Moo Moo keeping her company :)
This was a nice little nap time project. It made me feel like I actually accomplished something creative today. Now to get back to the chores... 

What are you working on? Anyone else labeling rooms in their house? Haha! I can only imagine what Bill is going to say when he gets home :)

Thanks for reading,
Kathleen
Posted by at

9 comments:

  1. UnknownJuly 8, 2013 at 12:19 PM

    I need a new wreath for our front door. I had a winter one that I kept up through March, and always intended on getting one for spring but of course didn't. I think I could even handle this DIY one!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. KathleenJuly 8, 2013 at 12:30 PM

      Yes, I think you could do this one Kris! The yarn part is kind of a pain, but you could use ribbon or strips of fabric to make that part easier. I can't wait to see what you do!

      Delete
  2. TracyJuly 8, 2013 at 12:21 PM

    Thanks Kathleen. You are giving me much needed inspiration to get the Cricut out the box and get started. I love the laundry and welcome signs. Can't wait to see more!

    Does your Silhouette need to me connected the computer to work with the designs or can you transfer them via a flash drive?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. KathleenJuly 8, 2013 at 12:32 PM

      Thanks Tracy! As far as I know, the Silhouette always needs to be connected to the computer. You do all the designs through a program on the computer, so its different from a Cricut in that way. Good luck with your projects - I can't wait to see what you come up with!

      Delete
  3. SandyJuly 10, 2013 at 9:34 AM

    Hi Kathleen - I found you via your comment on The Seasoned Homemaker about the Silhouette machine. I love what you did with yours, and wonder where in Joanns you found that adhesive backed vinyl at? I have had my Silhouette machine for over a year now and am so intimidated by it.. isn't that silly? I really want to use it, and figure maybe if I start with a small project like this it will encourage me to keep going. BTW, I loved reading through your blog, your new baby girl is adorable and I love how you decorated her nursery. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. KathleenJuly 10, 2013 at 9:44 AM

    Thanks so much Sandy! The vinyl is in the scrapbook paper aisle. I went back yesterday and its on sale right now :)


    I completely understand being intimidated by the Silhouette. I'm still doing basic projects for now. I'll work my way up to more advanced projects soon!

    ReplyDelete
  5. SandyJuly 22, 2013 at 2:01 PM

    Hi Kathleen - I found the vinyl at Joanns and tried this project this morning, but it was a total fail! The vinyl kept jumping all over the place while it was cutting, and turns out it didn't even cut it. Wish I knew what I was doing wrong :(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. KathleenJuly 22, 2013 at 9:08 PM

      Oh no! Is your cutting mat still sticky? Maybe the vinyl didn't stick to the mat well enough? I also did another project without using the cutting mat and for those I had to slide the rollers to the 12 inch slot. Try that out and hopefully you'll have some success!

      Delete
  6. SandyJuly 23, 2013 at 10:58 AM

    I tried adjusting the rollers and that did the trick! I just sent the vinyl in by itself without the cutting mat. I did find out that you can download free fonts to your computer and they will show up in the list of fonts on the Silhouette - great place to get some is fontspace.com. Can't wait to try more stuff now. Thanks for your help Kathleen :)

    ReplyDelete

I really love hearing your feedback! Its a great feeling to get a comment and realize that people are actually reading this blog. Thanks for taking the time :)

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)