Playing with Vinyl

Finally....I did it! I spent a bit of time with my Wishblade and the roll of vinyl I bought oh probably 13 months ago. Yikes. 13 months, that's scary.

My original plan was to use the vinyl to cut words for my family room wall, but I could never decide exactly what I wanted to say - so I didn't. Recently however, I decided that my bedroom wall needed some dressing up and I got to task.

Now you have to understand that while I've had the cutter for eons, this was my first experience with vinyl. All things considered it was easier than I expected it to be. I had a bit of trouble initially getting my design to fit within the bounds of the machine's cutting area (it was too big to s

tart with), and while I wasted some vinyl doing this, I did eventually get it right. Once it was cut, removing the 'extra' vinyl from around and within my cut image was a bit tricky too - this took a while, especially some of the tiny areas inside letters. There must be a trick here that I just haven't figured out yet. Applying them to the wall was a breeze once I got it straight, but I did have to be patient and remove the transfer paper nice and slow.

Here's a pic from a bit further away of the completed application so you can see how it all came together. Due to limitations with the cutter's size, I couldn't get it quite as big as I would have hoped, but I'm happy with it overall. Top to bottom of the word Today is about 8 inches which includes the top of the 'd' down to the bottom of the 'y'. This was really the word that gave me grief but I didn't want to change the font since it was so swirly.

So now that I'm a pro at working with vinyl (not!) I have some fabulous ideas about how I can use use it for some really neat Christmas decor and gifts! I'm excited.

Time Wasted or Time Well Spent?

I guess it depends on how you look at things. Here's how my day went.

1. First I decided to make some cards.
2. Then making cards turned into making a 'set' of cards -- the SCS Whole Enchilada to be exact (sets of 3x3 cards complete with box and envelopes) which sounded like a good idea at the time.
3. A 'set' of cards turned into 3 sets. The stamping and design were so simple I figured why not? (In retrospect this is where things really started to go wrong).
4. Then I needed a box template -- but figured I should probably make a Wishblade cutter file and it would save time - especially since today alone I need 3 and who knows how many I might make tomorrow right?
5. I created the file -- which wasn't that hard but when I went to cut, I couldn't find my cutting mat.
6. Spent the next hour (yes a whole hour) looking for it. Note to self: Put things away when you are done so they are not scooped up and put in the toy cupboard.
7. So with mat in hand I proceeded to cut the boxes. Phew! 3 Boxes cut in less than 5 minutes. (well more like an hour and a half if you count development & my little game of hide & seek)
8. Time was getting on, so I needed to abandon the project for a while.

Several hours later......

1. I now have cards and boxes, but no envelopes. Realizing that I need 24 (yes they are 3 sets of 8 cards -- another probably not so bright decision), I figure the machine definately needs to do the work this time.
2. Developing the cutter file is tricky tricky to say the least. I try it this way and that way, and then something else.....all tolled I think it was a 2 1/2 hour venture (just how long would it have taken to trace and hand cut 24 envelopes?)
3. But now as I am typing the Wishblade is whirring away cutting exactly what I need in it's own perfect little way. I think I have 18 cut so far, and it's only been about 7 minutes. Now that's fast!

So I guess whether I look at this as time well wasted or well spent depends on whether or not I'm ever going to make this 3x3 box full of cards complete with envelopes ever again. I think with the time invested thus far -- I pretty much have to use them else it will be time wasted indeed wouldn't you think?

It's getting late now, but will post the completed set(s) sometime tomorrow or Wednesday. I of course still need to assemble all of my envies because unfortunately the machine isn't smart enough to do that as well. Also when I get finished, I will try to share my Wishblade files so that you may be saved from the same agony that I endured on this project. I just have to figure out where I can upload files.

For now I must go, my last envelope just finished cutting, and there is much gluing to be done.

Cheers!