Playing with vinyl

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of the Silhouette Cameo. She’s probably my most used crafting tool. (Yes, that’s right, I said she. I’m sure she’s a sentient being!!)

Mostly I have used the Cameo for paper crafts, as pretty paper will always be my first love. However I’ve been dabbling a little with the idea of vinyl over the last few months. I finally took the plunge a little while ago and cut some vinyl. I read all kinds of tutorials about transfer tape and mirroring your design and nightmares with non-straight application. For those wishing to read or watch tutorials, YouTube is your best friend!

Although I was  a little afraid at first, it was surprisingly easy. The first piece I made (shown here) was from a file at the Silhouette Online Store. I had to resize the design and mirror it (which means to flip it!). The Cameo had no problems at all cutting the vinyl. I then weeded the design (which means to remove the bits you don’t want) and used transfer tape to attach it to the back of a picture frame I had lying around.  The frame is 6 x 4 inches so it’s quite small. I just added some digital patterned paper that I’d printed out and it was done. It’s small and simple but I was pleased with it! The picture shown here is from Instagram.

With my second attempt with vinyl I got a little more ambitious and decided to design something myself. I think I’d probably seen the phrase on Pinterest and liked it. I have a million fonts – well nearly – so the hard part was deciding which one to use!

I also wanted to try something different so this time I used canvas as my base. This was so easy I was amazed! I gave the canvas a couple of coats of paint, and once they were dry added the vinyl. There are two different colours in my design and I attempted to line them up correctly. I’ll be honest and say that I didn’t manage it perfectly, but hopefully that will just take some practice!

This canvas is somewhat bigger than the first piece, it’s about 20 cm square (or almost 8 inches in old money!) I’m working up to a big piece for over our bed. Hopefully I’ll get round to that eventually!

Recycling bin numbers

If you follow me on Twitter (and if you don’t, then come on over!) then you’ll already have seen this picture. I just thought I’d add it to my blog today as it definitely comes under the heading of ‘stuff I’ve made’!

I used the Silhouette Cameo, and some yellow vinyl to cut out new house numbers for our food-waste Recycling Bin. This way we know which one is ours after it has been emptied – plus it looks pretty! I’d not tackled vinyl using my lovely Silhouette before but it was very easy. The hardest part was stopping the vinyl stick to it-self. And that’s more user error than anything else.

I’m starting to worry that my crafting habits will eventually take over my entire life. But a prettier life can’t be a bad thing, can it?!

If you like digital scrapbooking, don’t forget to check out my new shop, for lovely templates!