Expressions Vinyl Blog

DIY Personalized Toddler Stool

Summerleaker — Fri, 18 May 2012 06:01:40 +0000

 Happy Friday to you all!  

I’m Summer from Made By Munchie’s Mama and in March I shared this tutorial showing how I created a personalized toddler activity table for my boys.  Well, today I am showing you how to create the matching stools for the table.

 I purchased these stools for $7.99 from Ikea on a whim.

 They took seconds to put together, just snap in the legs and they are ready for a cute little diapered booty.

 I decided to do car shapes since the table and chairs will be going in the boys’ transportation themed bedroom.  I added their names into the shapes and separated the car parts by colors, cut and weeded them.

 You could apply the different colors separately, but I just peeled off the tires and stuck them on with the red decals.

Apply transfer tape and cut out.

 Now comes the super secret tip to keep those pesky little air bubbles from finding their way into your otherwise perfect project.  Step #1: Tape the top of your sticker down using masking or painters tape.

 Step #2: Lift the sticker and peel the backing off of it.

 Step #3: SLOWLY use your squeegee working your sticker down from the taped edge till it is completely applied.  If I had 3 hands, the 3rd one would have been holding the squeegee showing you how to do this, but you will have to use your imagination for now.  Just think of how you squeegee the sliding door after you shower.

Slowly peel off your transfer tape and Wha La!  Perfectly personalized toddler stools.

Feel free to stop by my blog and follow me on Facebook or Twitter!

Silhouette love–clipart!

kimbowest — Mon, 14 May 2012 15:51:18 +0000

Hi! it’s kimbo back with another installment of silhouette love hopefully all these tutorials are teaching you to not be afraid of your silhouette (and to GET IT OUT OF THE BOX!) and if you don’t have one…did you know that you can buy one at expressions vinyl?

okay…….today we are talking about getting the images to cut on your cameo

The silhouette studio has a wonderful amount of the cutest stuff…..

you just type in what you are looking for and usually there are loads of fun stuff!

(i also love that if you like something–you can add it to a wishlist….(i have hundreds on my wishlist!)

and i also like that it will give you some other designs that are similar

and a lot of these images come with multiple images (like these borders….so while you are spending a dollar..you are really only spending 25 cents an image)

but let’s pretend you can’t find exactly what you are looking for…..

i’m making a lego bag to hold my kid’s legos…and what i wanted is not what they had…

so i found an image on google…

saved it to my computer….click open on silhouette studio…

(and at the beginning i couldn’t ever find anything…but that’s because i didn’t change my file type (red arrow) change that to all files and then all you stuff will show up!)

see…there it is!!!

it shows up just like the picture…..to get the image you want to cut (or print) you are going to use one of my FAVORITE things! TRACE!

you click on the trace and push select trace area….

then you drag your mouse over what you wanted trace

to make it all nice and even you will need to click high pass filter and you can use the arrows to make it better….

here it is with the high pass filter clicked..

so if you just wanted the basic lines than this will work for you…

but if you want to adjust the thickness and keep the lines nice unclick the high pass filter.

okay…so you have it all ready..now you have even more options…

you could click trace outer edge……which will give you this….

and if you just click trace it will trace where the yellow lines are…

if you click trace and detach it will give you this..

(which is great if you are using the print on your printer feature)

(after you click trace you will have to move your image off to see it)

here’s another example….the first is what i traced…the second is just the trace button…and third is trace outer edge…..

now…trace has pros and cons….

it’s awesome (that’s a pro) and it can be used to get those images you can’t find….

you can even adjust your size after to make it bigger and larger…

another pro is you can still adjust the color/ pattern…

but it really works the best with the trace outer edge…

BUT a con…you can’t ungroup anything…

(which you can totally do if you buy it in the silhouette studio….

these pie shapes can be ungrouped and i can adjust the pie pieces to how i want them!

let’s say you wanted this love you (without the speech bubble)

easy peasy!

and you want these cute birds on a branch

if you want them all colorful ….you have to ungroup them and cut them in onto the different vinyl/cardstock…

so if you just used your trace feature it wouldn’t work! so keep that in mind when you are deciding which route to go!

and did you know if you buy your cameo from expressions vinyl you get a $10 gift card to the silhouette studio online store!

alright…one of my commenter’s questions was how to put your own clipart into the silhouette studio library….. which is really easy…

you go to file in your studio

and go down to Import into my library….

it will open up the same screen as above–all the pictures in your file…

you click on the one you want

and it will have you rename it if you want…

and then when you push okay it goes right into your library?!

next month we are going to go over this commenter’s question…

“I would like to make a football helmet for my son’s room. I would like it to be 36 x 36. i know I can only make the width 12, what is your suggestion on making everything correct? i am thinking I will have to use 2 pieces and try to connect it the best I can. Have you ever tried this before?”

stay tuned….

A Rockin’ Shower Curtain!

Candace — Fri, 11 May 2012 14:00:08 +0000

Hi! This is Candace from Clearfield Designs and I’m so excited to be designing for Expressions Vinyl! I love using my Cricut Expression and Expression 2 when cutting any type of vinyl.

I have a bathroom we wanted to redo in a rock theme. I wanted to do something fun, yet different. I wanted to add something that popped. The bathroom is small, so I decided that a new shower curtain would be perfect. I looked everywhere for a curtain that would match and be perfect. I never found one. Then I got the idea that I can add vinyl! I ran to TJ Maxx and found a cheap, white shower curtain.

I used my Cricut Expression 2, Cricut Craft Room, “Musical Notes” (Craft Room Exclusive), and Heat Transfer Vinyl. My music notes are cut at 5 inches. I cut them out on a 12×24 mat with the blade setting on 3. Speed and pressure were set on medium. Remember that when cutting iron on vinyl, you have flip all objects backwards. This makes the objects iron on correctly. Set iron to cotton blends. Always use a protective layer between vinyl and whatever you may be ironing it onto. Multi use paper sheets work best. If you don’t use anything, there’s a chance that the vinyl will melt. (yes, I have done this a time or two) Iron over each image a couple of times. Gently peel off backing. If the notes peel up, you can iron over until the vinyl is attached. It is so easy!

I love how this project turned out and I plan to use more vinyl in this bathroom! I hope you enjoy it as well!

Thanks for checking this out and make sure to head over to my blog for more fun ideas!

Candace, www.clearfielddesigns.wordpress.com

Personalized Vinyl Bag

artistrybymckenzieg — Wed, 09 May 2012 18:02:02 +0000

How many doctor’s offices have you been to that give you a free bag filled with advertisements that you probably won’t ever use? I just recently had a baby and got my fair share of these bags that I didn’t quite know what to do with. I couldn’t really throw a perfectly useful bag away, so I decided to give it a little facelift.

I had the opportunity of going to the Snap! Blogger Conference last month and wanted a way to showcase my blog name without having to talk to every, single person. Putting my name on a bag was the perfect way to do this! To make your own personalized bag you will need…

*Canvas tote

*Iron on vinyl (2 colors)

*Mulit use paper

*Cricut using Sure Cuts a Lot or Silhouette

*Felt

*Iron

First, you will want to measure your bag to see how large your background vinyl piece needs to be.

Go on your cutting program and create the background piece that you want. I wanted my website to be shown too so I put that in there too. Be sure to make the text flipped before cutting it out though. Having the vinyl cut out this way, will make it so the color of your bag shows through the holes that the text will be cut.

Now you wantto peel off the vinyl from your letters and iron your vinyl onto your bag. The vinyl is a little harder to get to stick to the canvas, so be sure to press really hard and to let it sit a little longer than you typically would for other materials.

Your bag will now have your background piece on it.

I have a heart in my logo and I wanted to have my logo look the same on my bag that it does on my blog. Because the bag had it’s own logo on it, I couldn’t have the heart cut out of the background, so I cut it out of felt and hot glued it onto my vinyl.

Now you want to cut out your letters for your bag. I made sure to measure how large I could have them on the background, then typed them in, flipped them, then cut it out.

Cut your vinyl words apart and lay them out where you will want them to be.

Be sure to use the multi use paper when ironing over the hot glued piece so that you don’t get hot glue on your iron.

One by one, iron your words where you want them to be.

I added felt flowers to give it a little flair and now I have a unique, personalized bag that is both stylish and totally affordable!

Happy Creating

McKenzie from Girl Loves Glam

Layering Iron-on Vinyl

terpamber — Mon, 07 May 2012 14:05:41 +0000

Hey all Amber here from Life, Love, Green.

I’ve been looking for a good excuse to layer Iron-on Vinyl for a while but just haven’t found the right project. But that all changed when my Mom and Dad agreed to do a Duathalong relay race with me! I decided to find some (semi) matching dri-fit shirts for us to wear on race day arn’t they cute?

So its actually pretty simple the biggest hint I have is always have the vinyl covered with something when ironing. The best option of course is the plastic sheet that comes attached but if that isn’t an option try the Multi Use Paper Sheets available in the T-Shirt Vinyl Section. Check out my video for a little more on how I made these cool shirts.

So go ahead and try it! I would love to see what you make layering iron on vinyl so if you have a project link it up in the comments below!

Oh and just for fun I made another cute back using vinyl as a paint stencil on the back. So check that out on my blog Life, Love, Green!

Butterfly shirt: Designer edition software

kaysiscrafts — Fri, 04 May 2012 09:08:00 +0000

Hi! It’s Kaysi from Keeping it Simple

One of my favorite things to do is take a plain shirt and put some heat transfer on it and give it new life! It’s super easy to do and I feel like I get new clothes!

Expressions Vinyl has so much fun colors of heat transfer. For this shirt I used the silver and white of the smooth heat transfer. I also used the purple flocked heat transfer.

This is how I made it:

1) With my CAMEO I cut out the images. All of these were from the Silhouette online store. For the smooth heat transfer, I used blade 2 and thickness 16. For the flocked I used blade 3 and thickness 33.

2) I first put the silver flourishes onto the shirt and ironed them on.

3) Next I put the butterflies onto the shirt. I used the multi-use paper, so I didn’t burn the heat transfer.

4) Next I put the white onto the butterflies. I love how it looks on the flocked heat transfer!

Here is the heat transfer on the shirt, love the colors!!

I wanted to add some rhinestones onto the shirt, who doesn’t love a little bling? I just recently got the new designer edition software for my CAMEO. It’s awesome!! Here are the additional features that you can do with it:

Ability to open, manipulate, and cut .svg files
Rhinestone tools to convert designs into rhinestone templates and create your own rhinestone designs
Sketch tools to convert designs into several styles of sketchable art
Creative knife tools to allow you to clip designs using different patterns
Enhanced eraser set to modify designs with more precision
Built-in ruler and guide lines for precise alignment and drawing

I had to try out the rhinestone feature! I used the supplies in the rhinestone starter kit.

5) I just draw a little loop with the draw tool.

6) Then I went to the rhinestone page and clicked on the edge button. It’s so easy and quick! I used the 16ss size.

7) I cut the image out, I used the blade 3 and thickness 33.

I peeled the blue paper and then put it on the backer board.

9) I then filled it with rhinestones.

10) I put the transfer paper on the rhinestones and then put it on the shirt. I then ironed it using the wool setting.

11) I flipped the shirt inside out and ironed the inside to set the glue.

12) I did another loop with the 10ss rhinestones.

And that’s it!! It’s like a new shirt

Come by my blog anytime!

New T-shirt Colors

admin — Thu, 03 May 2012 17:34:24 +0000

We need your help. We are going to be adding T-shirts to our site soon to help you in your vinyl crafting endeavors. However we have come the conclusion that we cannot afford to bring on every color at this time. So we need you to help us out by choosing your top 5 favorites. The winners of the poll will for sure be added to the site in the coming months. Just FYI black and white are choices, but those are pretty much guaranteed to make it on the site if you want to put your votes toward other colors.

Colors
Colors will vary by monitor, please consider the color name as well

White	Natural	Ash	Athletic Heather	Daffodil Yellow
Yellow	Orange Sherbet	Light Sand	Sand	Pale Pink
Candy Pink	Violet	Aquatic Blue	Light Blue	Stonewashed Blue
Pistachio	Lime	Stonewashed Green	Medium Grey	Dark Heather Grey
Charcoal	Black	Chamois Yellow	Lemon Yellow	Gold
Orange	Texas Orange	Dusty Brown	Brown	Dark Chocolate Brown
Fiery Red	Red	Rich Red	Cardinal	Athletic Maroon
Sangria	Purple	Turquoise	Sapphire	Royal Blue
Deep Marine	Carolina Blue	Ultramarine Blue	Colonial Blue	Steel Blue
Navy	Dill Green	Kelly	Jade Green	Spruce
Olive	Forest Green	Dark Green

Poll

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Fancy Garden Flag

StephanieN — Wed, 02 May 2012 15:00:26 +0000

Fancy Garden Flag

Hi, I’m Stephanie and I blog over at A Geek In Glasses.

I really love garden flags, the only thing is that I have a hard time finding one that just fits me. Recently I found a source for flag blanks and with the help of the heat transfer vinyl I can create flags that are all me.

Supplies:
Heat T-Shirt Vinyl
Garden Flag Blank
Iron

Honestly, flag blanks are fairly easy to make using a canvas material. First, measure your flag holder. Cut the fabric to fit and stitch a 1/4″ seam around the edge. Then fold over the top to make a pocket for the rod. Really it’s that simple but some days, I just like having them done.

I cut out my text and image, the USA shape, on the Cricut Machine remembering to reverse the image when it is cut so it can be transferred to the fabric.

Next, weed the transfer.

Once the transfers are ready to go, lay them out on the flag. I like to cover the transfers with a clean dish towel. I press the vinyl heat transfers. Check a corner to make sure it has been pressed enough. Then peel off the plastic.

For this project it was easier for me to cut out the USA shape and press the heart over top. To layer the vinyl, press the bottom layer first and peel the clear plastic off. Then position the next layer on top.

Before pressing this cover it with a towel to protect the first layer.

That’s it. A one of a kind garden flag to decorate the house for the holidays.

Enjoy.

Shabby Chic Vinyl Bathroom Sign

AnswerIsChoco — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 13:30:13 +0000

Hi there Expressions Blog followers. Can I tell you how excited I am to be here sharing my very first project for the Expressions Vinyl Blog?! I’m Carol, and I blog over at The Answer Is Chocolate where my creative ideas are fueled by, you guessed it…all things chocolate.

Speaking of chocolate, when I think of it, I think of France. OK I think of chocolate when I think about anything, but back to France. I have a bare wall in my bathroom that was begging for something and I’d recently downloaded an image of the Eiffel Tower in Silhouette Studio that I was anxious to play with. I decided my bare wall needed this sign:

In order to save more money for chocolate, I often look for things to re-purpose. I found the frame at Goodwill but wanted to vintage it up a bit.

I thought I had light yellow paint but since I didn’t, I lightened up some bright yellow by adding white paint. Painted my frame with a coat of that, then dry brushed over it with white paint. Instant re-purposed shabby chic frame!

Now for the fun part! Along with my Eiffel Tower, I downloaded this fabulous laurel leaf image from the Silhouette online store:

Sized in the Silhoutte design studio software and then cut it from metallic silver Expressions vinyl. I love love love the metallics. Did I mention love?

Except when trying to photograph it on a sunny day. But you get the idea. I even saved the center of the laurel wreath to use on something else. Waste not, want not.

I decided I’d do our monogram, so I cut out the letter “C” and then the letters to spell “Le Bain” ( The Bath) , Paris, a flourish, and the Eiffel tower using Expressions black vinyl.

I applied all of the vinyl to the glass. What’s that behind the glass? A piece of fabric drop cloth from the HW store!

Since I was going for a shabby look, I wasn’t concerned about ironing the fabric. OK like that was going to happen anyway. HA!

Lesson learned…I should have placed the monogram over the laurel in the design software before cutting either out. You’ll learn from that right? I think this would have positioned things better but I’m still mastering my Silhouette Cameo. Guess I’ll just have to make more vinyl projects

Now when I’m in the bath, I can pretend the bathroom is in an artist’s loft in Paris. With French chocolates. A girl can dream.

Go Long!! with the Silhouette/Cameo

mandybeez — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 12:00:56 +0000

I want to address something pretty simple today, but worthwhile! Several people have asked me about how to make really long vinyl cuts, so why not do a tutorial…..

You’ll want to make things long like quotes and sayings where you don’t want to be limited to the size of your cutting mat. You can cut vinyl without the mat! So however long your roll of vinyl is, that’s how long you can make your image. For example, here I’m using a piece of vinyl that’s 24 inches long to make a decal for a car:

See how the template is much larger than the cutting mat – it’s easy to adjust. Over on the right-hand side you ‘ll see a place to set your height and width – - change those to match the size of the vinyl you are using. It’s that simple!!

I have used this to put up a quote by our treadmill – here it is sitting in the corner:

And when you’re on it, you have this on the wall looking back at you, urging you to keep going:

I LOVE to be able to cut things the length of the vinyl I’m using – it opens up the vinyl cutting to so many possibilities. Enjoy!!

–Mandy, www.SugarBeeCrafts.com