On Vacation

I am on vacation and I will return to making things on Sunday.

Vinyl Lettering

I put lettering for my husband's business on our Trail Blazer. I used the Printing 101 and Stretch Your Imagination cartridges.

Little Red Riding Hood-My Community Cartridge

Vinyl on Lampshades

I got the idea to do this from the Capadia Designs blog. I recommend visiting her site and seeing her lamps. She gives a step by step instruction that was very helpful.
I tried it with lamps in our house. I did not make the design go all the way around the shade because my shades are divided into panels. I also tried using white vinyl, but my shades are very thick and the designs didn't show up very well. So, I used black and when the light is off they have a very light shadow. I want to make sure they stay on the shades so I am going to wait before I decorate any more shades. I really like cutting the vinyl and decorating things. A Child's Year cartridge is perfect for this, but I think there are designs on all the cartridges that will look nice in vinyl.

Just a note on buying vinyl--I ordered vinyl from ebay. It was a bulk order and I could pick 10 colors. It was cheaper than ordering the cricut vinyl, but it is thinner and isn't quite as nice as the cricut vinyl. I will use the cheaper vinyl for the classroom, but for decorating in my own house I prefer the look of the cricut vinyl. The windows that I did and all the lampshade designs were cut out of one package of the cricut vinyl. If you use design studio to plan your designs, you can get a lot of designs out of one piece of vinyl.

A Child's Year-Cutting Vinyl

I tried cutting the vinyl today. I used the Child's year cartridge and cut vinyl for the door windows. This isn't the best picture because of the car and garage door, but you can get an idea. It was a good place to practice. I also put vinyl on the patio door. I used the palm tree border from Life's a Beach to match the palm tree curtains. The first pieces I put on have some bubbles in the vinyl, but I got better at applying it as I made more. I will definitely be cutting more vinyl and decorating more things around the house and in my classroom. I also really like the cartridge. It is one of my favorites!

My Community Cartridge-3 Pigs

The 3 Little Pigs are done. I made the characters and setting pieces at 8". I cut the pieces on chipboard using the blackout feature and then cut the rest on cardstock and used the cricut pens to draw the details. Then, I glued them on the chipboard and I will glue them to paint sticks when I get some. These should be great for storytelling. They are very sturdy.

The 3 Pigs-My Community Cartridge

My Community cartridge has a lot of possibilities for school. It has story characters and setting pieces for storytelling. It has parts for: The Little Old Lady who Lives in a Shoe, The 3 Little Pigs, The Gingerbread Man, Little Red Riding Hood, The 3 Bears, Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Hen, and pieces that can be used to tell other stories. Besides the story characters and setting pieces, there are community members, vehicles and graphics that can used to make signs for the classroom. This is definitely a cartridge to get if you are a teacher. I'm sure I will get lots of use from this cartridge. Look for this cartridge on ebay. I bought mine for $25.00. (It is $89 at Michaels and other stores.)

Making the 3 Pigs

1. Cut pigs from chipboard (.22 this is for durability). Use the blackout feature, deep cut blade, multi-cut (2), speed 2, pressure 5. I cut mine at 6 1/2". I tried 7", but the clothes can only go as big as 6 1/2 on a 12 X 12 piece of paper.
2. Cut pigs from flesh colored cardstock. Regular blade, speed 5, pressure 5. I did not use the blackout feature because I wanted the face to be outlined, but if you are going to stamp or draw the face you could use the blackout feature.
3. Glue the cardstock on the chipboard.
4. Make the clothes. Press layers and the pig key. I cut the clothes out of 5 different pieces of cardstock so I could mix and match clothing.
5. Put stitching marks on the clothes.
6. Glue clothes to the pig.
7. Glue on eyes and add any embellishments.

Next project: the wolf and houses