Vinyl-licious

My cricut has been a busy bug. lol.

Ok, quick bug, as in I'm bugged. (ok, I really don't mean to use bug so much when referring to the cricut, but I just am!) I don't know if any of you out there have/use one, but it's useful. Well, I also LOVE Make the Cut! (MTC) It's the best software out there, but last summer cricut/Provo Craft suede MTC and told them, and any other 3rd party software, that they can no longer make their software compatible with the cricut. So that is really buggy for me because until I get a different cutter, I can not update my software (which has improved leaps and bounds since then) or my cricut (which I don't really care about, because I'm sure they haven't improved much of anything). :)  Anyway... I still like having it and using it, and luckily it stills works. So here I am showing you what I've done:

My sister is one of those Super Moms who does everything! Literally. She's the PTA sec, is the Team Mom for her sons football team, Primary President for her ward, I'm sure is involved with her daughters soccer team - but I can't think of anything specific. Anyway, and the list goes on. So, she enlisted me for the beginning gift of the football team, which turned out super cute!

She had me make all the boys names, along with their jersey numbers, and some symbols to represent their team, etc. to put on some water coolers. I love cutting out vinyl. Taking off all the extra stuff after it's been cut and it just looks so clean and sharp. I don't know, I like it.

Anyway, she sent me a picture of it all finished. Don't they look great?!

She also made some for all the of the cheerleaders (yes. It is an 8 year old football team that has cheerleaders. lol. Gotta love Texas sports!)

So that's that.

We also had our Young Women's Standards night the end of last month. It was kind of crazy, but for our gift for the girls, I made up a little vinyl saying for them that they could stick on their wall, or mirror, or whatever. It is quoted from the back of the For Strength of Youth pamphlet as a reminder of the choices you are making, "Am I living the way the Lord wants me to live?" I made one as an example and put it in a frame to hang on my wall. :)

Fun times! Fun vinyl!
Sometimes I wished I knew when/if we were ever going to move so I could put some stuff up on our walls if we really are going to be here forever. :) One day... I'm remaining hopeful. :)

Fab Finds: Cricut, Cutting Vinyl and Fabric, and new Print and Cut Tutorials

Here are the instructions for cutting with vinyl.

I always forget the blade depth and pressure settings, so here they are. :)

Cutting Vinyl using Cricut & Cricut Expression Die Cutting SystemVinyl Instructions using Transfer Tape

1) Place vinyl sheet on Cricut cutting mat. Load mat into machine and confirmthat machine is set to the correct cutting mat size.2) Make cutting selection and set size as if you where cutting paper,and then press cut.Peel images off cutting mat.PREPARATION1) Place vinyl sheet on Cricut cutting mat. Load mat into machine and confirmthat machine is set to the correct cutting mat size.2) Make cutting selection and set size. For best results, set blade depth to 6 and pressure to 2.These settings will result in a "KISS CUT" or a cut that only goes throughthe vinyl leaving the backing liner uncut.3) Take ends of transfer tape in each hand with adhesive side facing down.Gently lay transfer tape over vinyl (be sure to lay it straight)image starting in the center and moving out toward the ends.4) Once tape is in place,use applicator stick to burnish*the tape on to the vinyl.Start in the center and use overlapping strokes.

APPLICATION
1)Completely clean and dry wall (or other surface) area where vinyl image is to be placed.For best results do not use a cleaner that will leave a residue.2) Lightly place image on wall using level to ensure correct placement.3) Once image is in place, use applicator stick to burnish* vinyl on to wall.For best results use overlapping strokes when burnishing*4) Gently peel back transfer tape at 45-degree angle.If vinyl starts to come off with transfer tape,lay area back down and burnish* again.

Cricut Vinyl Instructions Without Transfer Tape

PREPARATION
1) Place vinyl sheet on Cricut cutting mat. Load mat into machine and confirmthat machine is set to the correct cutting mat size.2) Make cutting selection and set size. For best results, set blade depth to 6 and preasure to 2.These settings will result in a "KISS CUT" or a cut that only goes through the vinyl leaving the backing liner uncut.

APPLICATION
1) Completely clean and dry wall (or other surface) area where vinyl image is to be placed.For best results do not use a cleaner that will leave a residue.2) Use level and pencil to draw a faint line on wall to aid in placement.3) Carefully remove the vinyl images one at a time form the backing liner and applyto the wall using the pencil line as a guide. Gently smooth down the vinyl using your fingers.4) Once all image are placed on the wall, place backing liner overthe vinyl and gently burnish* with application stick provided.5) When complete,carefully wash off or erase pencil lines.

Cutting Fabric:

I have a great video I found  that I put on my db's Crafty Corner blog along with some other links. Here's the link:   http://dbcrafty.blogspot.com/2009/05/great-tutorial-on-cutting-fabric-wthe.html

I have some other cricut info (free font links, svg files) over there too. You can find them all here:
http://dbcrafty.blogspot.com/search/label/Cricut


And, since I'm posting Cricut stuff, I just found some great info and tips on how to cut out images that you've printed on your printer, or cut shapes for your stamps! SO AWESOME! I'm so excited! :)
(No need to spend beau coup bucks on the new Cricut Imagine!)

Print and Cut

Ok, here's a video for the easiest way (I love Make The Cut!):

Here's a link that has the video instructions written out.

http://cleversomeday.wordpress.com/2010/11/01/mtc3printandcut/

And here's some more links:

http://cleversomeday.wordpress.com/2009/09/22/hinge-technique-for-cutting-printouts/

http://cleversomeday.wordpress.com/2010/06/12/mtcprintandcut/

and here's a link with a list of other options that I haven't checked out all the way yet.

http://cleversomeday.wordpress.com/print-and-cut/

and here's another site (this link is specifically to how to use center point to cut stuff) but I bet the site has a lot of other great resources too! :) 

http://www.mypinkstamper.com/2009/01/cricut-series-7-episode-78.html

One More Note:

If you go to this link:

http://www.scrappydew.com/mtcclassroom/beta/

you can see a lot of the awesome new features of Make the Cut! 3.0, it's a beta version still, so if you buy MTC you will get the older version, but you can upgrade to this. I am seriously so excited! (and the best thing is upgrades are FREE, unlike SCAL. But that's ok. It's just one more thing that makes MTC so great.) :)

So honestly, if you own a cricut, or a gazelle, or black cat cougar, you really need to check out these videos! :) It's pretty awesome! :)