Yesterday I posted about my Word For The Year. I chose “Move” to be the driving force behind my goals and attitude this year.
And, since I am inspired by words and art, I love to make things and I wanted to truly test out my new Silhouette Cameo, I decided to make a little inspirational art for my craft area. I wanted to highlight my word (to remind me to get my booty in gear) and also include the song lyrics that inspired me.
First, I used Silhouette Studio to create my design.
This was my first time cutting vinyl and it took a few tries to get it right. First thing I learned, don’t use the cutting mat. I stuck the paper backed adhesive vinyl to the sticky mat and when I attempted to pull it up and reposition it the paper backing shredded. It took me 45 minutes to scrape all of the paper scraps off my cutting mat.
A quick internet search told me what I wish I already had known: Vinyl can be fed directly into the Cameo. No cutting mat needed. If you’ve been using a Silhouette for a while you’re probably saying a big “Duh!” right now.
I painted my canvas a charcoal gray that I mixed myself from white and black acrylic paint. I wanted the words to be white and orange so I carefully picked out the insides of the letters from my cut vinyl design. I wanted super skinny letters.
Second thing I learned: Don’t use super skinny letters. It takes forever to pick them all out. Even with that Silhouette hook tool. I love the way my letters turned out, so for me it was worth the time. But I might not ever choose that font again. I also loved the effect of removing the centers of letters like O, R and A to create some thick looking letters.
Next I pressed the transfer paper over the vinyl and removed the paper backing from the vinyl. Then it was ready to apply to the canvas. I had the pieces laid roughly where I wanted them so I could be careful of spacing. I pressed the vinyl firmly onto the canvas, being careful not to stretch the canvas. Then I scraped the bubbles out with an old gift card. They say to use the Silhouette scraper, but I don’t like spending money on things I can fashion out of garbage.
Here’s the canvas with the design at various stages.
After the vinyl was securely stuck to the canvas I peeled the transfer paper off and sponged on the paint colors. I used 3 coats for the orange lettering and two for the white. When the paint was dry I used the Silhouette hook to remove the vinyl, revealing my lettering.
Because it was on a bumpy canvas the lines weren’t as crisp as they could have been. But I like them the way they are. Kind of hazy, like a fuzzy television.
Here is the finished product:
Time to get up and move now.
