Vinyl Vinyl Everywhere! And some paper too!

Oh I think I'm in love with my Silhouette! How did I wait so long to use it? The possibilities are endless! My first project was to work on a tumbler. I used a trace and cut for a heart stethoscope image I found online, then put my own font choice inside it (this is DPG Coffee Shoppe). I'm pleased with the outcome! I ordered the tumblers from amazon prime for about $3 a cup. I believe they are Marrs brand. They are double insulated and good quality, I have seen those at the dollar tree and glad I spent a little extra. 

The second project I wanted to work on was to use heat transfer vinyl. I ordered some with this particular project in mind... and love the outcome! I will say there is some trick to vinyl layering but it's still so gratifying to have made this cute shirt, especially since I don't embroider. I just traced and altered a coloring book image I found online. These are gifts so I don't worry about copyright at this point though always something to think about.. I actually took some photos so I'll post a mini tutorial of what I did and the mistakes I made :)

1. Cut and weed the vinyl. I used thermoflex, not siser easyweed and loved it. It was super simple to cut and weed. Don't forget to MIRROR your image BEFORE cutting!

2. Get your prep station ready. Towel under the shirt, iron on- hot and dry. ALL images cut and ready.

3. Iron the shirt. This is important as wrinkles will not look good with vinyl overlapping them!

4. Figure out placement first! I actually placed the vinyl on, then held it up in the air to make sure I liked it!

5. Apply your heated iron! So, here's one thing I learned.. Use Parchment paper to prevent the iron sticking to other finished vinyl while pressing. Thank goodness he'll only wear this a few times because that notch is driving me crazy!

And that's it! This pic is to get an idea of the texture of the vinyl. I'm pleased with the outcome so far, though I haven't washed it yet :)

 As if I hadn't vinyled enough!

I HAD to play with the glitter HTV. Though note to self.. it is a pain in the behind to weed. AND it does not have any stretch to it.. so placing it on a maternity shirt was not smart... but still cute! And washed just fine.

I needed some party decor for the shower, so I used dollar tree paper doilies and leftover scrapbook paper to make a banner and a few other items! I immediately realized why I don't like cutting cardstock! So fickle!

I was pleased with the outcome though! And dollar tree tablecloth too! I think I was out about 5 or 10 bucks total :)

That's all for now!

Adventures with my Silhouette Portrait

I'm not sure if they've ever studied this, but I swear pregnancy brings out the crafty side of me. It must have to do with the "nesting" effect but suddenly I want to work on projects that have been sitting around for.. lets just say "a while".

So I must confess.. I was one of the lucky winners of a silhouette portrait from the fabulous blog: Thrifty and Thriving TWO years ago. Literally 4 days before my son was born. So, as you can imagine, in the midst of learning how to be a parent, I just didn't have time to do anything with it aside from small simple cutting. I did manage to make some cute things for his first birthday last year.

It was pretty simple, but I was glad to learn how to use the machine. The first thing I learned was how sticky a new mat is! I still have that candle burnished into my mat.

Fast forward to his second birthday. Momma went a little crazy with the Elmo stuff, but it was a lot of fun! I used this link for the files: Scrappin by Kris. Then I used this link: Silhouette School Blog to figure out how to convert an SVG file to something I could use in the free software with Silhouette. It didn't take long to figure out and once I did, I was an Elmo making fool!

So after that I decided I wanted to try my hand at vinyl. A friend recommended API Crafters Supply because their prices are good and they ship quickly. I ordered a roll of white, a roll of black and a few colors by the foot, just to play around with. To my surprise, when I opened the boxes I had an extra sample roll of the Heat Transfer Vinyl (I believe in holographic blue) and a pink ribbon decal for breast cancer awareness in October. I had considered getting the HTV but thought I'd wait to see how I like using regular vinyl. Sure enough, I used it the first time last night and I'm hooked!

I made the necklace image based on another I saw online, if I can figure out how to add it to this blog, I will! I also made a little sister onsie. They were super easy and look even better than the photos due to the type of glitter HTV.

I also made a few decals to "test" out around the house. I used a phone charger template from silhouette school and made a heart stethoscope car decal.

I'm officially hooked!

Happy Crafting :)