Tarp Cutting test

I don't know why I didn't think of this before, but it makes sense when you are testing a vinyl to do a cutting test to see how many passes it takes before the vinyl is cut all the way through. It is such a pain when the cut is incomplete because you have to put a lot more time into the piece to get the pieces (chads) out, and then that can leave a fibrous hole.

The photo shows results on a test tarp for one, two, and three passes. In this case, the 3-pass cutting test is the best. No hanging chads like in a Florida election. Some tarps you can get lucky and only have to cut once or twice to get a decent result. This is with the highest pressure, fastest speed and deepest blade depth.

If I was going to cut a bunch of items out of the same piece of tarp I might experiment with the other settings such as speed. But I usually get bored working with just one color and I go by my experience.

Hockey Game Crowd Sign

My husband and son found themselves on the Jumbotron at a recent hockey game. After that, the plan was to see if they could have a "camera-catching" sign when the Edmonton Oilers came to town. So this was the happy result! Go Flames! The presence of the letters "CBC" is to promote the broadcaster. They get a crowd shot AND some promotion. So fans put those letters in to make the signs more attractive.  Edmonton has the sign "City of Champions" at the edge of town, so that's why the "City of Chump-ions" reference.

I'm actually from Edmonton, and I enjoyed many seasons of cheering for the Oilers.  But family trumps hockey loyalty!  So here it is. It would have worked better if the flames were in adhesive vinyl instead of glued-on foam from the dollar store. The large amount of Vynabond glue I used caused the tarp to warp.

Cut out using a Cricut Expressions, with Sure Cuts A Lot software, which is now vintage due to the lawsuit. (If I ever get another vinyl cutter I'm going to make sure I get one where I can design and print my own designs.)

Vinylschnitte Notebook

Finally got one of these notebooks listed.  A year or so ago I had a lot of ideas for notebooks.  The hanging chads issue is largely solved by using the multi-cut feature on the Cricut Expressions. Rounding the corners makes for an attractive edge without binding.  Cutwork is trending right now. Therefore, I hope these get some interest.

With this notebook the red insert is reversible to a teal color for a more subtle color combination. Or the insert could be left out entirely for a white background. Three colorways in one notebook!

I had been journalling on my iPad, but there's something about having a physical notebook to thumb through. I enjoyed looking at past sketches for cartoons, things I haven't done yet, as well as all that journalling. I think I'll start using a physical notebook again. After all, one never knows when the cloud will go "poof," and there goes all your entries.


Did you know that the German word for paper cutting is Scherenschnitte? I guess what I'm doing is Vinylschnitte.  

Cutout map

I made a Cutout map of downtown Calgary using TouchDraw on the Ipad. Plus a lot more steps as well. The reason for many blocks not getting cut out was that I was experimenting with the pressure on the Cricut Expressions during the cutting session. It seemed to need maximum pressure on this particular piece of vinyl. The challenge was with the high pressure the piece was looking like it was going to shift off of the cutting mat.

Cutout/cutwork maps seem to be a trend, here's one in paper of Madrid. Mine has nowhere near the accuracy of Karen O'Leary's work however; I just wanted to see how it would look. Also the underlying map I was using did not have a lot of detail. The advantage of making an svg file is that I can make many copies. Each one will be unique due to the underlying colors of the vinyl.

Living Pixels lamp by Yanko Designs

These lamps are made from recycled banners. The coloured part of the banner is on the inside and only shows when the lamp is turned on. I'm going to have to give this technique a try sometime.

It looks like the individual pieces are squares with folds at the corners. So a Sure-Cuts A Lot file could be created for the Cricut Expressions from drawing software. The drawing file would be comprised of squares with optional dashed lines for the folds. I'm not sure how the vinyl is attached to the underlying frame though.

Custom Notebook

Cam from chrome dome designs wanted a custom 5X7" notebook so I made this. I traced his logo in Adobe Illustrator and found the font he used on his website with this nifty font finder Whatthefont. In Whatthefont you submit a picture and identify the letters and it gives you a few font equivalents to the image you submitted.

I'm finding that with adhesive vinyls using a medium blade depth and a medium pressure in the Cricut Expressions usually does the trick, and it was trial and error to find which particular vinyls worked best. For example a glossy vinyl I tried tended to rip in an "accordian fold" manner on some of the fine letters. So I used a matte vinyl instead.

Floral Necklace Prototype

Here's the first cut of a prototype floral necklace, cut on a scrap piece of vinyl tarp. I'm trying to see how small or fine of cuts I can make. I like how this first one turned out. I plan to finish them off with a chain that goes around the back of the neck and closes there.

Here's the discussion of how I did it for those who are interested: In Illustrator I started with a basic oval shape, and an inner shape to make a compound path. (Two ovals; Object, Compound path, Make). To make ovals with veins I overlapped ovals and used the divide tool, erasing extraneous parts. Then the parts were recombined piece by piece to make a petal with veins. Then I copied and rotated the ovals 72 degrees each time until I had 5 petals. I used the combine tool to finish the flower. I used blends (specified steps) to generate different sizes and copied enough shapes to fill in the design area of the necklace. Once the shapes were placed right they were combined. The too-tiny-to-cut shapes were deleted using the Direct Selection tool. Finally, I highlighted the whole shooting match and uncompounded the path to make the different cutting layers.

In Sure Cuts a lot I have a layer of inner cuts and an outer cut layer. The inner cuts get cut first so the work does not slide around on the Cricut Expressions cutting board.

Steampunk Notebook/Journal

"By day, I work. By Night, I Write" notebook. I was staring at the steampunk background for quite some time and searching for inspiration for quotes on topics of working, factories, and writing. Finally it came to me what text to put on it. I aligned the text with the curves on the background. This item is available for purchase here, unless someone else gets to it first!

Transform those household bottles

While I enjoy products for their qualities, I don't necessarily want ongoing advertising on my countertop or shower. Why not transform them? These bottles had labels that were easy to remove. Using the Cricut Expressions with blade depth 3, medium speed and pressure, I cut the following letters out of adhesive-backed vinyl. Painter's tape lifts off the lettering. I found it a bit challenging getting the tape to let go of the letters.

gluing and cutting experiment

I had some leftover stained-glass effect window vinyl from our last house. For some reason I held onto it. I decided to try gluing it onto some white vinyl tarp and see if it would take to being cut on the vinyl cutter. It did. This is essentially cutting through three layers of vinyl.

Update: well, the two layers didn't adhere well enough so I tried sandpapering the layers prior to gluing. Adhesion was still not that great. I'm not sure what to make of it.

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.

Expandable mesh in billboard vinyl

I have been designing different mesh patterns for my soap totes. I decided to create an expandable mesh using cuts designed in Adobe Illustrator, then cut with Sure Cuts a Lot and the Cricut Expressions machine. its a real simple cut pattern as you can see, and it produces diamond-shaped holes.

I am enthusiastic about the possibilities, from garden fencing to bags, to oversized-soap-bar totes. I wrapped the sample around an applesauce jar jusst to see what would happen. A bunch of this mesh would be good for packing or storing glassware, and it itself does not take up much space when not in use, and is reusable. Better than wrapping stuff in newspaper, IMHO.

Using Cricut for my billboard vinyl wallets

I put my paper wallet pattern pieces into Illustrator then printed them onto the Cricut.

The biggest challenge was getting the vinyl stuck to the mat so it was true.

I am delighted with the results. Not much leftover vinyl to go into the landfill. I had always found it a challenge to cut out the driver's licence windows so they looked tidy enough. Now they are cut with precision.

Below is a small video with very annoying Cricut machine sound.