Zebra Striped and Hounds Tooth Printed Vinyl Uses {without a machine}

I love love LOVE my Silhouette.  But I realize that not everyone has a vinyl cutting machine.  And that’s ok!

There are still tons of ways you can use vinyl without a machine, and without hours of tedious cutting.

Here are a few of my latest creations that I made WITHOUT my machine!

The first is my favorite.

I have a dear friend who is expecting her first child.  She is creating an “ABC” wall, you know a wall with all the ABC’s on it in various, creative forms?  I decided to make her the letter “A” and instantly became stumped.  I tried spraying it with glitter spray paint, but I couldn’t get good coating of it on the inside sides.  Next I tried making crepe paper rosettes but there was so much empty space on the wooden letter it just looked silly.  It was 10pm at night, the evening before her shower and I was at a complete loss!

I was about to just cut a vinyl letter out with my Silhouette, and my husband (yes, my husband) suggested that I take my already painted wooden letter “A” and just adhere vinyl to that.  Oh.  He is a brilliant man sometimes

So I pulled out some super cute Zebra Striped vinyl from Expressions Vinyl that I had been wanting to use, cut a piece large enough for my “A”, and placed the vinyl upside down.  Next I carefully peeled the backing paper off and stuck my “A” upside down, onto the vinyl.  I whipped out my handy dandy Exacto Knife and cute around the letter.

It is one of the most simple crafts to do with vinyl, but I received soooo many compliments on the cute letter “A” that I created!

Isn’t it just so cute?

The second thing I have done recently is to cover my phone case with vinyl.  Oh yes.  You can do that.  And it is an inexpensive instant facelift to a dull or chipped phone case!

I took a super cute piece of Hounds Tooth Vinyl that was screaming my name and cut a piece just large enough to go around the back of my iphone case plus a little extra to go on the inside too.

Carefully take the backing paper off and wrap it around the case.  If you have rounded corners, you can actually take your hairdryer and heat the vinyl up a bit and stretch it around those corners.

Use your Exacto knife to cut out any holes in your case and voila!  You have an instant, inexpensive, simple upgrade to your phone case!

How cute is that!?

So if you’ve been wanting to do a vinyl project but don’t have a vinyl cutting machine, don’t worry!  They are many many projects you can do with vinyl without a machine!

But if you are looking to purchase a machine, I highly recommend buying a Silhouette Cameo from Expressions Vinyl.  Expressions Vinyl continues to have the best price on a Cameo and they also have incredible prices on vinyl!

Happy crafting!

Ashley Phipps is an Interior Designer, NCIDQ #25242, living in the Indianapolis area, and author of the blog Simply Designing.

You can follow Ashley at her blog Simply Designing, Facebook, Twitter and Pintrest.