I am the Vinyl Queen

(Sung to the tune of the Dancing Queen) And I don't mean Queen of the 45s. Although those were cool. My mom had the best collection and when we were kids ... well, that's for another post!

I am the queen of cutting vinyl on my Silhouette. Hopefully at income tax time I can talk Mr. Crafty Heart into letting me get the Cameo! 12X12 cutting goodness! Anywho.....

I have been creating with vinyl so much in the last week that my blade is smokin'! It really is addicting. I'll share some pix of my creations in a future post. This post is dedicated to the AMAZING folks at My Vinyl Direct. I was provided some vinyl and transfer tape to use and do a tutorial on. Wow, did I get a great deal! The vinyl and transfer tape are high quality, and their customer service is awesome! I will definitely be ordering from them soon! So here is what I made.

Sorry the picture doesn't do it justice. It's the wall in our half bath, and I was scrunched in the corner standing on the toilet lid. (TMI?) Hard to get a good picture! 

All of the shapes were cut using the FREE program that comes with all Silhouette machines, Silhouette Studio. The waves were a free file from a fellow Silhouette user, and the other shapes I had purchased at the Silhouette store when I first got my machine. So, here is the low down.

This is a snapshot of what Studio looks like. You choose the image you want to cut, and you can resize, duplicate, rotate, edit the shape, weld it to another shape, the possibilities are endless. You can even design your own shapes!

When you have it the way you want, click the "send to Silhouette" button and load the vinyl into the machine.

It's a personal preference on whether to use a mat or not for vinyl. If I have a roll of vinyl, or a piece of adhesive backed vinyl, that will fit between the rollers (they hold the paper and roll it in and out for cutting) I never use a mat. Obviously I do for smaller pieces that won't fit under both rollers. 

Once it's loaded, if you own a Silhouette cutter, DO A TEST CUT! Yes, I typed in all caps. I cannot stress this enough. Even if you're cutting the same medium you cut yesterday, do a test cut. It only takes up a TINY bit of space, like less than a half inch, but it could save you an entire piece of paper and/or your cutting mat! So do it. Cause I said so. Make any adjustments needed, click cut, and jump on Facebook or Pinterest while the machine does the work!

Once the cutting is done, you do what is called weeding. This involves removing all pieces of vinyl that you do NOT want in your design. 

Silhouette America has a nifty little tool called a hook that works great for helping get rid of tiny pieces so you don't rip your design trying to use your (in my case) non-existent finger nails or scissors. 

Then you need your transfer medium. This transfer tape from My Vinyl Direct is AWESOME! A lot of times I'll just use clear contact paper to transfer my designs, but not any more. This stuff works 1,000 times better! I didn't have a bit of trouble getting my vinyl onto my wall. So, you cut a piece the size of your design, remove the backing, and stick it to the right side of your vinyl. What's nice about their transfer tape is the grid lines. If you have a design or words that need to be straight, you can use these lines to line everything up. 

Once the transfer tape in down, rub over the design so it'll come off of the backing and stick to the transfer tape. 

Stick the transfer tape to the desired location, in my case the bathroom wall, and rub over the design again so it'll release from the transfer tape and stick to the wall. Some vinyl or vinyl kits come with a scraper you can use to make it easier. Mine looks like a pan scraper from Pampered Chef. My Vinyl Direct sells a Squeegee Tool that looks like it would do a better job!

Carefully remove the backing, and voila - wall art! What could be easier!

So, to recap: choose a design; cut; weed; transfer to wall; enjoy! 




I would like to find something to fill some empty spaces on the wall, but I may just cut more bubbles. Or a shark. Or start decorating the other walls. And the hallway. And the living room. Think the neighbors would care if I started on their house?