More vinyl cutting

 This week I did some more vinyl cutting.  A lot of people love the glass blocks, and a friend of mine wanted one with praying hands.  I also decided to put her nephew's name on the block this time.  I think it turned out really nice. Better then I expected it to.

 

I also finally cut the Rebels decals.  I found a cool tutorial on how to cut copy into shapes.  The same friend coaches cheerleaders for the Rebels, so I was playing with the copy and came up with the below heart.  She loved it, so I had to make her some..

 One of my other friends owns a company called Fas Tuning Performance Parts.  He wanted some stickers made, so I cut him a few.  He really was pleased with how they turned out.

I bought the silhouette to cut fabric, but I'm having so much more fun cutting vinyl with it.  :)

Pinot's Palette

 My friend Debi and I went to one of those wine and painting classes last weekend.  It was such a great time.  I haven't painted in years, so it was good to get painting again, and of course, I want to paint more on top of all the other hobbies I have.

 

 We started off painting the canvas with black acrylic paint. 

 Then we made an aurora borealis sky.  I didn't like mine much cause as a painter friend of mine noticed, it was kinda window wipery.  LOL  But my friend's looked amazing!

 This is Debi's, hers was so cool!!

 Next we added trees, which I liked cause it kid some of my background.  LOL

 Then we added snow and stars.

Here's Debi's.  I think she did an amazing job!!

We're so excited, we're taking another class next weekend. Will post photos of that one too!  If you haven't taken one of those classes, you should do it, it's really fun, and you get a cool piece of art when you're done.

Vinyl cutting

I'm still having a lot of fun playing with my Silhouette Cameo.  Who knew I'd love playing with vinyl so much.  I really love the look of the lighted glass blocks that I've been seeing everywhere.  And a friend of mine lost her nephew a couple of weeks ago, so I decided to make her a block.   I just love this photo and saying. Her sisters loved it so much that I made them two more.  :)   I had to give them to her without the lights because of course, I made this after all the black Friday sales, so all the Christmas lights that would work are gone.  BUT luckily, I found that Hobby Lobby still carries short strands of lights that are plug in lights.  Yay!

 

I found blinky lights, colored blinky lights, but not the non-blinky ones.  Thank goodness for Hobby Lobby.  There was also a single big bulb light, I want to see what that is going to look like.

 Tonight's project was for two sets of Dog dog tags.  That sounds funny.  But another friend at work lost her dog last week, and she wanted me to make her grand kids these dog tags to remember him by.  They finally came in this week so I could finish them.  I don't like to make the dog tags as much as I do the pendants, the pendants have simpler lines and harder plastic "Bubbles".  But I think these came out not so badly.

 I found this really cute dish at Target, so I decided to put Ashley's name on it and give it to her for her pink glass collection. Technically it is not glass, but it's breakable?  LOL  I hope she likes it.

 I found these little dishes all over the place, and I found out that a  lot of people have been selling these on the internet.  So here's my versions.  I think they're a little too plain, so I have to find something else to put on it.

This cutting board was made for a woman who makes us so many goodies at work.  I thought since she would bake some really great things for us, I'd make her something.  So I found these glass cutting boards to put vinyl on.  The vinyl was put on second surface. I want to now try a large monogram one.

Vinyl Cutting

So, I finally bit the bullet and I decided to buy a new electronic cutting machine.  I had one of the original Cricut machines, you know, the small one that cut 6" across and only used cartridges.  And although I love using it, buying cartridges just to get new fonts or designs can get pretty spendy.  So I decided on Thanksgiving weekend to drive over to Hobby Lobby and purchase one with a gift card I had received from my sister's boyfriend.  And boy, do I wish I had bought one sooner.  After going to a class this past year given by Applique Corner at my local quilting store, I decided on buying a Silhouette Cameo machine.  They showed us in class how to use the machine to cut pieces from your applique designs so you don't have to cut them after tacking them down to your project. I know that I can't use my Cricut cartridges with this machine, so at some point I'll probably buy the new Cricut.  

I brought the machine home, and pretty much sat on it for a week.  I tend to do that with new things because I get intimidated by them.  I just think it's too hard, that I won't get it. etc.  But after watching videos of how to run the machine and the software, and my nephew asking me to cut some copy for their ranch, I decided that I had to get it over with and just cut some vinyl.  OMG, I haven't stopped since.  I started out with the text for the things he needed for the ranch:

 Then I decided that my friend's granddaughter needed a personalized Christmas gift, so I bought this really cool glass jewelry box and put her name on the lid.

 Then I decided it would be cool to give the sales staff at work personalized pint glasses.  So I made them glasses of their favorite things.  The marketing guy is really into VW's so he got a VW pint glass.

One of the salesmen is from Detroit, so he got a Lions Glass.  I'm not a Lions fan, but this glass came out so very cool!

 One of our salesmen has his own brand, I think it combines his and his wife's initials.  He had our company make him a big metal "brand" to hang up on his wall.  So I had our art department send me the file so I could make his own glass.

 At Christmas my niece gave to us her graduation photo.  So of course I had to fix it up a bit.  This was the first version I did before I decided it needed her school's name on it too.

 

 Then my step-son plays on a Rugby team in Colorado, so I just finished digitizing their logo to put on a glass and to make some car stickers.

I'm also going to etch a belt buckle case for our niece.  Hopefully it will come out really cool!  Will update the photos once it is done.

I'm learning more and more about vinyl, and now I want a sandblaster to do more glass and metal etching.  LOL  This is going to be so much fun!  And when I figure out how to send the files that I create from this program to my embroidery machine, things will be that much more cool!