Christmas in July Vinyl Tutorial

Hello followers - Merry Christmas! Yes I know it is rather early but in the crafting world Christmas does seem to fall in July doesn't it? (And for those of you who may have expected  an emotion filled rant for my next post- sorry - not my style. And to my non-circle followers - ignore these parentheses!)

So in case you didn't know, I heart vinyl! All types of vinyl really but today I am bringing you a tutorial on how to create a great ornament using sign vinyl - and the best part? It takes hardly any time at all!

The details:
I began with my supplies: scraps of sign vinyl (Orcal 631 - I get them from a sign shop), painter's tape (to act as transfer tape), a ceramic ornament, and my vinyl tool (but you can also use your Cgull scraper tool).

Next I laid out my vinyl on my mat and smoothed it down using my tool. You will see white vinyl here and not in the finished product because I had planned on using it but then changed my mind. Using the tool to apply it to the mat gives you a nice smooth surface to work with and ensures a nice cut.

I always have cut vinyl using 3-3-3 settings on my machine and have never had a problem. After cutting my design, I weeded off the excess which just means I picked out all the little excess scraps.

The "Let it Snow" is from Winter Frolic and cut at 2.10 inches. The snowflake is from Joys of the Season and cut at 2 inches. Now, technically you should use transfer tape for all layers but for the phrase I just used my fingers to add the dark blue letters and then placed my transfer tape over it, again smoothing over the top with my vinyl tool.

It should then lift off pretty easily, and this allows you to place it on your ornament.

Again, smooth everything down on the surface and then slowly peel away the tape. You should have your design in perfect shape on your ornament! (and psst! it if tears a little - no worries! vinyl is very forgiving - just smooth it down!)

Of course I added some Martha Stewart bling with some glue dots and replaced the ugly gold thread with some delicious Trendy Twine for the final product.

And for the back of the ornament? I will admit I used a white transfer tape so that I could more easily see to  layer the vinyl but I also think clear contact paper would work the same if you want to try tricky layers. I think I would just make the contact paper a little less sticky first by applying it to my clothes or the rug first.
Here is how it turned out:

Wasn't that easy? It would have taken me under half an hour but I had to stop and keep taking pictures. And if you are looking for another idea that combines vinyl and ornaments, you can use it etching cream and come up with a final product that looks like this:

All I did in this case was place my vinyl on the ornament, cover the rest of the space with etching cream, and let it sit! All that was left to do was wash off the cream and peel off the vinyl and I was done!

If you still haven't had enough of vinyl and ornaments you can check out this post - where I used it with the infamous Glitter Balls.

I would love to give away some vinyl scraps to someone who wants to play! Leave me a comment and I will pick one person on July 26th to get an envelope filled with some vinyl all ready to use. (Please know - these will be odd-sized pieces of various colors - not new vinyl sheets.) Oh and even though it is 90 degrees outside - Merry Christmas!

Twine Winner!

Thanks so much ladies for all your wonderful comments! I used random.org to pick the winner and....

so that means the winner is...

Congrats Aman! I will send you an email so that I can get your address! And again thanks so much to everyone for entering!  

My Twine Storage Solution

I should promise that no twine was harmed in the making of this blog post but that would be a big ole lie - there were some minor skirmishes but organization prevailed!

 Have I mentioned that I heart baker's twine? It has been finding its way into my projects more and more, but I have to admit - that stuff can be a PITA to get it unrolled when it is actually time to use it, especially since I only have it in smaller lengths (a sampler pack from The Twinery and one of Divine Twine....well, at least that's what I have right now). Anyway I needed a way to turn this mess.....

into something more manageable. (you should know - this is what happens when the 18 month old decides to "help" mommy). And what I came up with was a design for a thread bobbin that turned that mess into this...

And now all of my twine can be stored on a ring within reach on my pegboard or on the end of my Making Memories cabinet (haven't made up my mind yet). I was going to store them in a box except that enabler Caroline (from Caroline's Craftography) showed me some ribbon storage that made me remember I had binder rings. (Edited to add:) You can find the binder rings in the school supply section at Walmart or an office supply store like Staples - I happened to have some in with my school stuff.

The details:
The process was really very simple - I used three rectangles from George welded together and then cut from kraft cardstock - and I cut two for each thread bobbin and adhered them together to make the bobbin nice and sturdy for the twine. The final bobbin is just over 4 inches high and about 3 inches wide.

I was able to lay out 6 of the design one the mat to be cut out of one 8 1/2 by 11 piece of paper - which in the end would give me 3 total bobbins (assuming I put the paper on the mat correctly - can you guess why I said that??). Then I simply added a little slit at the top with a razor and wrote the brand and color name. A hole punch in the bottom and a large binder ring, and the bobbin was done ready for winding!

It really was a painless process and now I can look at all my pretty colors of twine and admire them on a daily basis. But how about a little giveaway?? I have a bobbin of Halloween Baker's Twine from Trendy Twine that I would love to give to one of my followers. I also heart Halloween so I will admit I splurged and bought the whole spool.

How much is on there? No idea - I would guess about 7-10 yards - enough to add that special something to your Halloween projects. Just leave me a comment and I will pick a winner on Friday, July 8th.   As always if you would like the Gypsy file for the bobbin just shoot me an email and I will send it to you.