Tag Archives: vinyl decor

{Maxx and Webkinz birthday party swag

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Okay, so I had a Halloween project all planned out for my post this month and well, I sort of didn’t pay attention to my calendar and didn’t realize today was my day! Blasphemy!!!!

So pretend you are looking at a picture of my cool Haunted House…

 

See? Isn’t it pretty?

Instead I bring you something else. Something I’ve never shown anyone anywhere before. I’ll confess it isn’t a new project, but since Mr. Maxx was an integral part of making the day the success it was, here you go…

A couple years ago my daughter begged me to have a webkinz themed birthday party. Do you know what these things are? They are crazy expensive stuffed animals and you get a code and you can play a bunch of games online with your virtual webkinz. I had a hard time justifying spending $15 for stuffed animals, so I made my daughter save her pennies and buy them herself. Well, now she has 100 of these things.

Frankly, I would have saved the money and took a trip to Hawaii. But she tells me, “Well, YOU spent the money on your KLIC N’ KUT that you could have taken a trip to Hawaii.” To which, I said Touché.

Because while I would like a trip to Hawaii, really I would, I don’t think I’d be without my Klic n’ Kut.

Okay, so without further babbling, here is my project:

I found the graphics online and you know how um, cruddy (notice how I didn’t use the word I normally use) the quality of online graphics can be, and traced them into KNK Studio:

I cut the letters out and pasted them on a piece of white card stock and displayed them around the backyard. The dog was paper pieced and then stamped with hearts. These turned out to be a huge hit because many of the girls asked if they could take them home at the end of the party.

One of the games we played was guess how many gum balls were in the jar. I picked up this jar at the dollar tree and used Maxx to make a vinyl stencil and then put etching cream on the glass. I don’t know if you can see it very well in the picture, but it’s etched with webkinz.

I was really glad I took a picture of it when it did, because unfortunately it broke when the winner of it accidentally dropped it. Gumballs went everywhere. She was so upset because she wanted to keep it forever. Luckily I had a back up (read: it was kind of messed up so I made another one, but the little winner didn’t care).

After the girls were done playing assorted games, they spent their webkinz cash they won in a store where they could buy little trinkets for a set amount of money. I think this was the favorite part of the whole party.

For a grand prize, the girl with the most webkinz cash, I made this:

I used Maxx to make the stencil out of vinyl and then painted it with pink paint. I also outlined the letters with a puffy paint pen. I’m not the best artist so I’m a little embarrassed about showing you the closeup:

I guess WordPress doesn’t want me to show you the picture because it won’t let me add it. Let me try again:

 

Hmm. Well. It won’t let me add it. I’ll go ahead and publish this and see if I can add it later.

 

There it is. I was having a bit of an internet problem I guess. I got lucky I saved my post before it crashed.

I hope it’s okay that I steered away from Halloween a bit. I was really excited because it’s my favorite holiday of the year, but maybe I can show it next month. I can’t wait to see what you are making with your machines! I wanted to show you my iPhone card (in honor of the new iPhone release) but the picture isn’t on this computer 🙁 🙁 I’ll find it at home and post it on my blog.

 

edit: Just a gentle reminder that I do respect copyright and I only used these images for personal use so unfortunately I can’t share the files.

{Wall Graffiti…

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Hello. Yes, it’s me again. The one who talks ON and ON. I’ll bet you think I’m like this in real life. I’m actually not. I’m pretty quiet, so I guess that’s why I over compensate when I write.

So grab your cup a joe and come with me whilst I ramble… but also while I show you some coolio stuff.

I ordered some black vinyl from Accugraphics. Looking back, I wish I had ordered brown, but it’s okay. After all is said and done, I think I’m liking the black. No two vinyls are the same, but I really like the quality of Accugraphic’s vinyl. It cuts like butter and is easy to weed (pick all the parts off you don’t want) and easy to apply.

I don’t know if I’ve told you, but I come from a sign background. I am a sign-maker’s daughter. Yup, my parents owned a sign and engraving shop for about 20 years. My dad passed away and my mom tried to run it for awhile, but eventually sold it because I had no interest in doing it anymore. I worked there while I got my teaching credential but still helped out when I could.

About 20 something years ago, my parents paid about 30 grand for a Gerber machine called the Super Sprint. I called it the Stupid Sprint, as I tend to rename things. It had an amber monitor (no color!!) and it only had 5 or 6 fonts.

Why am I telling you all this? Because it’s amazing to me that you can spend less than or more than a thousand bucks (depending on which KNK you choose)  and get an amazing machine that does way more than the Stupid Sprint ever did.


Do you have boring walls like this at your house? This wall used to be white, but my girl and boy spawn helped me paint it this nice green color last weekend. I tried to get Mr. KrapIKreate to let me take down the wainscoting because I personally think it’s ugly, but I was denied.

This hall way used to be super dark, but we installed a sun light and so that’s why a lot of my pictures are going to have bright spots.

 

I found a tree on the internet and downloaded it. Once I had the tree drawn in KNK Studio, I cut and pasted it into Make the Cut. Why you ask? Because that program just rocks!

I tried to use the tiling feature in KNK studio, really I did, but somehow ended up messing up 10 yards of vinyl.

So from KNK Studio, I did a ctrl+SHIFT+v into Make the Cut and then it keeps your tree the size you want it. This particular tree is somewhere around 45 inches in length and 36 inches high. I knew the vinyl I was using is 12 inches in width so I opened up the tiling feature in Make the Cut. I told it I wanted the length to stay 45 inches (because my vinyl was 10 yards) but I only wanted the height to be 11 1/2. I allowed for that 1/2 just in case. You can also set it to overlap, but I just stayed with the regular settings. The beauty of MTC is that it separates each tile into its own layer. Here’s an example of one of the layers:

 

I cut out each layer using my 24″ KNK Maxx. I was using a fairly new blade so the force was set at about 36 and the speed was about 150. You can cut vinyl much faster, but when I am cutting large pieces, I don’t like it going too fast so I slow it down. It still had all three pieces cut in no time.

After I had it weeded and pre masked, I put the middle piece on the wall first. For one thing, the top edge of it was straight, so it made it easy to use a level to make sure I was putting the tree on the wall straight. See the masking tape hinge at the top? I’m sure I didn’t invent this method, but back in my sign days (see how that came in handy telling that story?) this is how we laid vinyl down on signs because it allowed you to get it where you wanted it precisely. I don’t know if you’ve ever taken the backing off of a large piece of vinyl and attempted to lay it down, but it is not easy at all!

Here’s an example of the hinge method. You fold the piece up, using the hinge

You carefully peel the backing off, and then using the squeegee, ease the image onto the surface.

 

I know that leaf is tweaked. I ended up pulling that one off. It was right where the image split when I tiled it.

And there is my tree.

Here is a great example of using the hinge method and cutting apart the image so you only have to lay down a little bit of it at a time. You are less likely to have goofs if you are able to lay the vinyl down in small portions. Unfortunately that one part of the tree had to go down as one because there was no where for me to cut it, but it worked out okay.

 

Here is my semi-finished wall. I’m planning to mount some of my favorite black and white images on canvas and have a collage of family pictures on the wall. I played around in Photoshop with a canvas image I downloaded off the web to get ideas of what it will look like:

The pictures were taken at an odd angle so it looks funny, but you get the idea.

I’m planning to open this file back up in KNK Studio, and will outline how I want the collage to look before I start poking holes in the wall.

 

 

This won’t be my final layout, but I can use the alignment tools and such to get the pictures where I think I might want them. Then I can use the measuring tool and I’ll be able to see how far down from the ceiling I need to put the hole for the pictures.

 

Thanks so much for reading! Happy Cutting! (Fred always says that and I liked it so I stole it so there!! ) 🙂

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday USA

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In honor of America’s birthday (+ 1 day), my project is a glass block for my husband’s American Legion Home, using the title of my favorite patriotic song, God Bless The USA. I purchased the glass block, lights and the ribbon at Hobby Lobby.
The flag is a free font from www.dafont.com called USFlag. The letters are ZAPFCHLI. I used outdoor vinyl Medium Red, Dark Blue and Silver (purchased from www.KNKUSA.com). I frosted the block using Rustoleum Frosted Glass, which works well. Use vinyl transfer tape instead of painter’s tape as that will take the frosting off the glass.

I’m the type of person that can’t stop with one use of a design, so I designed a T-shirt, same font, but using the map of the USA. For this project, I used red glitter iron on transfer for the map and old silver iron on transfer for the words.. I made the words smaller to fit into the map. I cut the map first, pressed it on, then added the words and pressed again. I always use a teflon sheet to avoid scourching and for a smoother look (thanks Lynn K. for that tip). Be sure to measure the area you want to put your iron on BEFORE cutting.