Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Vinyl Projects - Step by Step


Creating beautiful vinyl projects can be some of your favorite Christmas gifts this year, and I have the step-by-step directions for you here today. I hope you will find some great inspiration!



This ceramic tile costs a mere 69 cents at a local home improvement store. It is 13 inches square, and the vinyl is a scrap from a local sign shop.... again just a few cents worth. I have used Make-The-Cut for this project, but the principles that I am using are the same for any Cricut project.


The most important thing I could tell you is to ADJUST the BLADE to 2 or 3 so that it only cuts through the top layer of vinyl, and not the backing sheet!!! This will allow you to maintain the proper alignment that your Cricut has already created for you! (Trust me... hehehehe!) Check out this post to see a BIG vinyl job that I did, so I know what I am talking about :)


This is what your finished project will look like (after flexing the project so you can actually see the cuts).


This is "weeding" or removing all of the unwanted vinyl from the backing sheet. Be careful to save all of the centers of "e's" and other such letters, and make sure you don't let the weeds get stuck to the letters you are keeping.




This is completely weeded, and ready for the transfer tape.



The next step is to add a piece of "transfer tape" or masking tape over the vinyl on the backing sheet, and rub thoroughly over it, so all of the letters/designs stick to the transfer sheet.


Then you flip it over onto your tile, and everything stays perfectly in place! Isn't that easy? Now you rub all over the images with your fingers, and carefully pull away the transfer tape.



I wanted to give the back of my tile a nice cushioned, finished look, so I cut fun foam to fit. The piece that I had was 12x18, so it required a little piecing, but that wasn't a problem. I used the hot glue gun to adhere the foam to the tile. Work carefully, and pretty quickly, as the tile is cold, and causes the glue to set pretty quickly.






Here is the finished project, though I did go back and add a gold layer to the star, after I took this photo :)

If you are interested in the SVG file for this project, please leave a comment, or send me an email at the contact info listed in the right margain.

I hope you have enjoyed the tutorial, and will leave a comment or two!

Please check out BettyBeesBuzz and see the vinyl projects that the HoneyBees have done last week! Great ideas for home decor and gift ideas, as well as a place for you to share your projects!

Happy creating ~

BettyBee

3 comments:

Court said...

I love it! Way to go Betty!

Anonymous said...

Oh WOW! This is so elegant. I love it. I would like the file for Make the Cut or SCAL (I have both). I always look forward to receiving your updates via email.

Thanks

Marjorie from TX

marjorie_brundage at sbcglobal dot net

Anonymous said...

Just love your tile and would like to give it a try if you would please share the Make the Cut file
Thanks so much,
sharryquilts@yahoo.com