Another Halloween Vinyl Project

Here is another of the Krafty Blocks from HL, with Glitter Orange vinyl, cut with the Stretch Your Imagination cartridge. It's hard to tell, but it's a tall skinny pumpkin man.

And here it is, filled with candy corn and pumpkins. On this cartridge there is also a squirrel atop a stack of acorns, which I thought would be cute for a container of mixed nuts. But I didn't have any brown or gray vinyl, so a tall skinny pumpkin man is what we have! Thanks for stopping by--have a great weekend! I'm going backpacking with the Venturing Crew. I'm a first-timer, wish me luck!

Halloween Door Decorations

In my quest to try all crafts Cricut, I made these vinyl door decorations for Halloween. The haunted house and scary tree are from the Happy Hauntings cartridge and the trick or treaters are an SVG file I downloaded from HERE and cut using SCAL. I cut the house at 11.5", the tree at 10" (I think; I know it was a little smaller than the house), and the kids at 3".

The words were cut using the vampire font on Happy Hauntings on this smashing orange glittery vinyl at 1.5". I pressed shift for the W on Witches, but for some reason it didn't take, so it's all lower case. By this time I was getting a little frustrated with the project so I decided to let it go. I wish you could see this vinyl IRL; it looks really cool.

Here is a picture of the whole thing. I'm basically pleased with the way it turned out. My DD and her friend told me I was becoming an EXPERT with the Cricut--wasn't that sweet? I learned a lot, especially that maybe I should stick with paper crafting and leave the vinyl alone! However, since I went on a vinyl-buying binge a few weeks ago at Oh My Crafts, I will very likely continue to use it, at least until that's all gone! I already have plans for a wreath door decoration. I'm just sorry I got this up so late, since it will have to come down in a few days. Why does Halloween only come once a year? I love it so!

Etched Glass Block

Hi, I'm hosting the Anything but a Card challenge over on Inspired Crafters today, and the challenge I posted is to do something with glas (or clear plastic). I've been having some fun with glass etching. I used a Krafty Block from Hobby Lobby (they were having them 50% off, so you'll probably be seeing more of them lol!). I cut out a vinyl stencil using my Sure Cuts a Lot software and Cricut, and a doodlebat font from Lettering Delights. This project was the first time I've ever played with the vinyl; it's surprisingly easy! Once I'd made the cut, I used transfer tape to transfer the image to my block, masked the raised edges of the block with masking tape, and smeared the whole front with a thick layer of etching cream. I let it sit for 10-15 minutes, then washed it off and removed the vinyl. TIP: In future, for stenciling purposes, I plan to use contact paper, since it's a lot cheaper than vinyl.

On the other side of the block I did the same thing using a cut from the Christmas solutions cartridge from last year, so I can have the inspirational or secular side facing out. I made these to put battery operated tea lights in--I expect they'll look very pretty in the dark. I topped it with a ribbon and some picks from Mike's.

There's another method for etching glass: emboss resist. There is a cool tutorial HERE, and an example I made HERE.