Obama Ornament

Here is my version of a keepsake 2008 ornament. I used SCAL to sut the Obama silhouette from vinyl and placed it on chipboard.

My Cafe'

I thought this was a great kitchen decoration because we drink lots of coffee...The SCAL cut file is on the right.

I used brown glossy vinyl for the main cut and the hearts are dark red wall pops. Our kitchen is dark red, so it is perfect...

Super Simple vinyl votives

I love this simple, but elegant gift for a friend. I did the letters in brown vinyl so they would go beyond the Christmas season. The font is Plantin, and the branch is welded from Home Accents. The glasses I got at a thrift store.

I just HAD to Vinyl it...

I found these hard sided notebooks at the dollar store and immediately thought that I just HAD to vinyl them! I just love the plaid combinations they come in! The notebooks look small here, but they are a full 81/2 x 11!

Glass Etching - unofficial instructions

So many people have asked how to do glass etching, so here are some basic instructions:

materials needed:

glass item ( plate, glass, tumbler, jar)

Armour Etch creme

vinyl or contact paper

**Armour Etch can be purchased at Michaels and other craft stores, it is pricey, so make sure to use a coupon.

**I find great glass items at thrift stores and dollar stores. You will want to start your first project on an inexpensive item, since you may make a mistake on it. You can even practive on a pickle jar or old wine bottle.

**The best and easiest items to etch are perfectly vertical, like a tumbler glass (or pickle jar). Bulbous wine glasses and vases take more practice, in my opinion.

Here is a cut file with instructions on how to use it. The cut file is in the right hand column

Piece A: rectangle

Piece B: ring

Piece C: inner circle
Pieces D: letters

Choose either negative or positive images. Below the black represents the vinyl pieces and the white is the glass.

The top image uses pieces A & D

The bottom image uses pieces A & C

You get different results from each method.

(These are cut in Plantin, but can easily be recreated in other fonts and shapes)

After cutting, place the vinyl on the glass, make sure it is on where you want it and then press hard on each piece of vinyl making sure you have no bubbles. This is an important step.

I use a foam brush and put the AE (Armour Etch) on with a dabbing motion. You so not want any brush strokes. Make sure you use plenty of the AE - glob it on!

Set a timer for 5 minutes.

When it is done, I use my same foam brush and wipe off the AE into a small bathroom type paper cup. (Put this excess back into your bottle, it is fine to use again!)

When most of it is off, rinse the glass under water washing the rest off. (Make sure you don't have other glass dishes in your sink)

remove your vinyl stencil (you can use it again) and dry your item

Glass Ecthing

Oh, I just love finding a new craft. Here are my glass etching projects.

I used the vinyl and glass etching creme. It's so fun and makes great gifts too!! I've been searching the thrift stores for cheap glass items to etch.

Christmas Home Decor

I've been having fun with Wall Pops vinyl. I decided to try dome home decor. The cut file is on the right ("Believe"). The text is Plantin, the stars are George, and the sleigh is PDDU.

The Bug Mug

I bought this travel mug at my dollar store (Dollar Tree). They come apart and you can put any design or picture inside the mug so it shows through...so naturally I had to make a Bug Mug! I bought a dozen so I'm sure I'll be making personalized or monogrammed mugs for gifts, and themed mugs for teachers - all with my Cricut of course... --The bug head cut file was originally Jen C.'s (I think) I changed it to work with the carts I had. I'll post the cut file here, but please know it is not my original cut file- I'm not taking credit for it...My version uses Home Accents and Wedding...

What to do with your extra candy corn!

Gingerbread House

I'm not in the Christmas mood yet, but just had to make this gingerbread house cut. My Mom makes a super fancy gingerbread house every year, and this reminds me of it. I used George, Plantin, Doodlecharms, and Mickey and Friends for the lollipops. Cut file is in the right hand column. Enjoy!

Smiles all Around

Here I go again, I totally "craft-lifted" this idea from G&GsMommy. My friends 40th birthday is today and she's having a 60's party, so I thought the smileys were so appropriate! The flowers are just print outs of a clip art flower with a smiley face I put on top. CLICK PIC FOR A BETTER VIEW.

Directions: Find a styrofoam ball which fits snugly into your container. Use hot glue around the edges to hold in place if necessary. Gather lollipops, straws (cut in half), wooden BBQ skewers, clip art, or other decorations(taped to skewers), 3" squares of tissue paper. Start at the top and put in your topper (the item you want to be the centerpiece - in mine the "40 Sucks"), you can work around that now. Take one piece of tissue and put the lollipop stick in the middle being careful not to puncture the paper. Gather the paper gently around the stick and insert the whole thing in the styrofoam. Go around the bottom edge until all is filled in. You can put them 1 inch or less apart. the tissue will cover any showing styrofoam. Keep filling from the bottom of the ball to the top. When you are about 2/3 done, switch to BBQ skewers with the same method, except use a skewer insted of a lollipop. Now put straw pieces over all the skewers, now stick lollipops in the straws. Trim straws as necessary to adjust height of pop. The straws add height and dimension to the bouquet. You can certainly do with out the straw method and just do all lollipops though. At the end stick in any embellishments. Let me know if these directions helped. Good luck!

Pixie Sticks Bouquet

I totally "craft-lifted" this idea from BettyBees Buzz blog. Hers are very cute and I had to try it. I cut from the PPDU card and stuck them to the sticks with pop dots like Betty. For the ghosts and trick or treat bag, I used the Cricut markers first, for accent. I like the clear jar, so you can see all of the pixie stick colors! Click picture to get a better view...