My Banner made it on TV

Here's the sign I made in the crowd shot with for husband and son! Sign is at the 42-second mark. Too bad the flames didn't make the playoffs. But what a great sign! I used adhesive vinyl for the lettering plus some foam flames from the dollar store. The used tarp was white on the non-printed side. the Oilers logo was printed on some canvas. The foam flames and canvas were glued on with VynaBond.

Sideboard Decoration

I had been reluctant to hang pictures due to my chronic illness, but enough of that already. The best way to get a husband onside is to let him pick the first painting. My husband loves to hike and Lake Louise, so this was the one.

Flowers from the parking pad which used to be part of the backyard. Might as well cut them and enjoy them. The vase I made from an old jam jar covered with adhesive vinyl decal in a scribble design. Lake Louise painting by Edward Henry Potthast, from Art.com which was sent to "Meatball Grove Place" but got here just fine. Mid Century sideboard obtained from the Sally Ann, which has seen a bit of history. We keep the printers and school supplies in there.

Got a great haul of adhesive vinyl

Thanks to Roy Alexander for the connection and Bob Cook at Branded Visuals for the end pieces and leftovers of adhesive-backed vinyl. I feel like a kid in a candy store. There's lots of etch vinyl which I can use for frosted glass effects and to tint colors.

I spent a good hour rolling together similar colours, and listening to the Vinyl Cafe, an amusing coincidence.

Racing Stripe Patterns

Since cool cars have racing stripes, I thought it would also be cool for my bicycle handlebar bags to have them. Then I thought that the racing stripes didn't have to be plain, but they could have pattern to them. Here are a couple of racing stripes in adhesive-backed vinyl that are to be made into handlebar bags. After I put the racing stripe on the tarp I thought they might look good as artwork, too.

I really like how a decal can become the focal point. There's a lot of utilitarian vinyl tarp out there, and using decals is a good way to draw the focus to a specific point in the design, and to make a boring piece of vinyl sing!

Update: thanks to my customers who purchased these bicycle handlebar bags at Market Collective.

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!

Painting on adhesive-backed vinyl

I had to answer the question of whether adhesive-backed vinyl could be painted successfully before cutting. I'm using WR-LPU topcoat, a marine coating. The surface of the vinyl was sanded first and cleaned with a damp rag before painting. I mixed primary colors to make the desired colour. I was attempting fuscia but ended up close, but not quite there.

This picture shows the result after I stuck the letters onto some clear vinyl.

So, the home crafter can now attain just about any color of adhesive backed vinyl with a little bit of paint mixing. It would be great if System Three made "cool" primaries like light lemon yellow and a lighter blue, or CMYK primaries so home paint mixing would yield a greater range of colors. In my acrylic painting course we had three "cool" primaries and three "warm" primaries, and along with black and white, were all the colours needed to mix any desired colour.

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.