Working with tarps with glued decals

Some tarps have glued-on letters which makes the tarp thicker and harder for my vinyl cutter to cut through the layers. I have tried to peel off the decal in the some cases, but that is time-consuming. Also, some decals don't lend themselves to being removed. I tried a multicut and that cuts through both layers, but its a bit messy. Maybe if the cuts were simpler in design it would yield a better result.

I had been setting that type of tarp aside, but now I'm seeing that I will be able to work with it, even though it will take longer on the cutting machine.

Lake Chaparral Stampede Kick-Off

225 Chaparral Drive SE (at the lake) Saturday, June 27 2009, 9am-1pm. Entry is a food bank donation, free pancake breakfast, live entertainment, games, bouncy houses, horse&carriage rides, outdoor market, face painting, and prizes.

Update: I think I need to provide more information in my displays like my company name and pricing. I had planned to have my laptop showing my commercial and product slide show but in an outdoor venue there's too much glare. There were good crowds and this event was well organized.

Vase Sleeve

A humble salad-dressing bottle gets a Mid Century Modern slipcover with a circle tesselation. Groovy, baby.

Soap Box Design, continued

One way to get air on the soap is to have a corrugated vinyl liner in the soap box.

I experimented with putting feet on the box as well as a way to raise the bottom of the box. If it had a mesh cut on the bottom of the box then that would be another way to keep the soap dry, but the soap box would still have to be on the sink or have another dish underneath it to catch the water. So I'm favoring the corrugated liner.

I'm aiming for this box to be three things: a soap box, a soap dish, and then a nice decorative box after the soap is gone. More than just a box, as notes Packaging Diva JoAnn Hines writing about David Graas' Not A Lamp,

I've been asking soap makers how many soaps in a hand-made batch. The Etsy folks say between 5-25 on bars on average. So there's my target range for a custom Etsy listing.

Please comment!

Soap Tote Video

Garden Fencing

This idea for garden fencing comes from the necessity of keeping soccer balls out of the garden. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, now to adjust the positions of the tabs and make some more for this flower bed.

This design only requires inexpensive bamboo stakes to install. The tab and slot extensions at the sides adjust to fit the diameter of the bamboo stake.

Vinally.ca Website

I got my E-commerce website up and running with two products. http://www.vinally.ca/
I am sure I will be making many changes to it but I'm glad I got this far. I will load it up with products in the days to come. Please visit and comment!

Certificate in Visual Design

You are looking at a certified designer. :)

Lawnmower cover

I made a very quick cover for our lawnmower. We don't have a garage and I disliked the bright orange colour of the lawnmower.

This gives me an idea to accessorize the backyard with many different examples of recycled advertising tarps and how they can be used. Don't worry it won't look tacky!

Billboard Recycling, Where it's At

The average tarpaulin used for advertising is 60-70% PVC, with an internal polyester fibre mesh. Source: Vinyloop.com. <-----------These folks are working on recycling tarpaulin material and they have a pilot project underway in Ferrara, Italy. The process involves separating the PVC from the fibers. The PVC is treated and recycled and the fibers can then be used to create polyester felt.

As they don't have a tarpaulin recycling plant here yet, and they don't qualify for the Calgary Blue Box recycling program, we might as well make stuff out of them!

Vinyl Vase Adhesive

Here I am experimenting with a product called Vynabond. It works pretty well. It might be the same adhesive as the one by LePage that I blogged about earlier. The prototype vase here is designed so that it will stand up on its own when filled with water. Now to come up with some variations on the vase design.

Update: well, I have hit a roadblock. I think I might need some expensive seam sealer device because I can't get the glue on the edges just right to avoid leaks. Maybe I'll revisit this project again sometime.

Bicycle Panniers from Billboard Vinyl

Here is my latest European-style bicycle pannier. It fits a large grocery bag. It is made out of a highway traffic safety billboard. There are handles inside so they can be carried for shopping at the local Farmer's market. It is designed to fit onto a rear bicycle rack, and has a bungee cord that hooks onto the base of the rack for stability. Panniers are $70 a pair, free shipping in North America. If you wish to purchase this visit vinally.ca/shop

Vinyl bud vase

I was perusing Packaging Diva's blog and it reminded me of something I saw regarding flat-pack flower vases. I decided to experiment with some heat-seaming with my household tools such as irons and Bic lighters. Then I remembered my husband had a soldering gun. It worked the best so far, but there still are leaks to solve.

Imagine having a garden full of flowers and not enough vases. These flat-pack vases would be just the thing for those beautiful cut flowers. And they fold flat when not in use! I will update this post when I solve the leak problem. With a flat pack you can incorporate a traditional silhouette with a new material. Very post modern.

Soap Box - tab and slot closure

I saw a company out there advertising boxes, and I thought, "why not try designing a soap box out of recycled vinyl?" It occurred to me that a fold line could be created with a dash-cut line. And it worked! I embellished this prototype with a filagree design from a vinyl bracelet that I had designed earlier. It has tab and slot closures so there's no need for added fasteners.

HEY SOAPERS, this kind of eco-friendly packaging could be tailored to your company name, or the soap name, or be decorated with the kinds of ingredients that go into the soap. For example a daisy cut pattern for camomile. The soap box can also be used for travel or storage after the soap is gone, because the box looks nice. if you are interested in trying this kind of packaging email me vinally@vinally.ca

Visit me at the CFIS Family Fair

Saturday, June 6 at the Calgary French and International School, 700 77th Street SW from 12-4 pm. There will be lots of activities including a petting zoo, non-stop entertainment, mechanical rides, marketplace, etc. Complete list of events at http://www.cfis.com/events/familyFair.php#market

Update: What a great event, just like a mini Calgary Stampede. Turnout was likely down due to the June snowfall, which harassed the participants intermittently, but the benefit was that it drove people inside to the craft sale areas. I was happy to make some sales. I'm going to improve my table display to make the recycled billboard vinyl concept discernable at a glance. Also its time to make some commercials to show as a running looped video on a laptop.