While we are no longer making active post of Cricut projects on this blog as of 8/1/2013, we invite you to use it for continued die cut inspiration as we will leave the blog up for viewing. Happy Cricuting !

Friday, February 22, 2013

St. Patrick's Day Decor Using Vinyl

Hi fellow FANatics! It's Colleen from Col's Creative Corner sharing a little of the luck of the Irish with you!

Now that St. Valentine's Day has come and gone, it's time for the wearing o' the green in our home. I finally got around to one of my bucket list projects, a St. Patrick's Day Subway Art Frame.



This was my first time attempting to use Word Collage and vinyl. Up until today, I had only used it a couple of times with my Imagine. This is a very versatile cartridge and upon closer inspection of it, I was thrilled to see the Irish inspired subway art.

I set my Expression 2 to the kiss cut (speed 3, depth 3 and blade 4) and loaded the mat. I cut a small shamrock just to make sure that it would cut. It cut nicely, so I felt safe to cut my word collage. It cut most of the words smoothly, but the smaller phrases were ripping. I changed my setting to a speed of 2 instead of  3 and set the blade at 3. I found that worked much better. It was a new blade, so I think that was why I needed to lower the setting for it. I also found that no matter what I did, I couldn't get the "Top Of The Morning" phrase to cut without tearing some letters. To fix that, I used my Gypsy to add a row of shamrocks where that phrase would have been. They are from Paper Doll Dress Up. At this point, I used the hide contour function on the Gypsy so I could change the colors of the words and phrases that I needed to re-cut. Below is an example of some hidden contours and a different color vinyl.


I weeded out all the small pieces before transferring the letters to the glass. The picture below shows the transfer paper on the letters. It really makes working with the vinyl easy.



In an effort to keep the phrases straight on my frame as I transferred them, I used a piece of scrap paper and created a grid to put under the glass while I was working. I cut the word collage at 7.5 inches wide, so I drew a line at .5 an inch in from the edge of my scrap paper. I didn't draw any lines across the paper, but I will the next time I create one of these frames. I also think I will reverse the letters the next time so that they will be inside the frame and not on the outside as they are on this one. I'm such a vinyl newbie! I used a piece of green paper from my stash as a backing for my word art.


Here's a close up of the frame. I really am happy with how it turned out.


With my vinyl scraps, I made a candle that would compliment the frame. I used a Martha Stewart Punch to make a doily border and I cut some shamrocks in varying sizes from A Child's Year. I can light this candle if I choose to because it melts into itself and the outside stays the same. If you are unsure how a candle might burn, I would suggest removing the vinyl before lighting.


If you have been wondering about trying out vinyl, I say give it a try! I really enjoyed creating this project and I know I will be digging into my stash of vinyl again very soon!

St. Patrick's Day is a double the fun holiday in our home. We love celebrating our Irish heritage and it's my birthday too! It's a great day for a birthday, everyone celebrates with me and I get a parade to boot!

Thanks for stopping by the FANatics blog today! It is always an honor to share my projects with you! Don't forget, there's still time to enter our challenge! Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone!

Happy Crafting!

Designed By: Colleen McCauley
Machines Used: Cricut Anniversary Expression and Gypsy
Cartridges Used: Word Collage, A Child's Year, Paper Doll Dress Up
Materials: Vinyl, Martha Stewart Punch, paper, frame and candle from my stash. The paper is is from Penny Black and is called Green Sponged.


9 comments:

  1. Thanks for all of the great tips and I love your St Patrick's subway art and coordinating (birthday) candle! I love the colors of vinyl you selected and it all adds up to fabulous!

    I wish you the Happiest of Birthdays!

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  2. Thanks for the tutorial, great job!!! I never thought of using the border punches before...

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  3. You did wonderfully with this vinyl collage! It looks fantastic!

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  4. Love how your project turned out. I'm going to have to try this some time.

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  5. Colleen, I just saw these on your blog and fell in love. We do St. Patrick's Day up pretty big so this was just perfect! Great idea with the vinyl on the candle!

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  6. I love your projects Colleen. The subway art is awesome. I love how you mixed up the fonts and colors!

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  7. Great job with the vinyl subway art! Love the candle too.

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  8. Love your project -- the frame and candle look terrific -- you did a great job!!

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