DIY Make Your Own Reusable Stencil with a Cricut

I got a Cricut for Christmas! After making vinyl decals for everything and everyone I could think of, I started to delve into other projects I could create with this amazing machine! It truly is a work of art all by itself! I found tutorials for etching glass with vinyl as the a stencil, I tried it and loved it. 

Then my creative juices got flowing and I tried making stencils. After much trial and error I figured out stencils. So of course, why not combine the two projects and make vinyl stencils for glass etching!? 

I take no credit for the actual tiara on glass project, that is not my original project, it's just being used to show the process. 

First you will want to find a Tiara or crown silhouette online. I did a google search and found this one. It's important that it's one solid picture with no cut outs, the cut outs won't transfer to a stencil very well.

 Upload the image to the Cricut design space, select and erase the background.

Save it as a cut image, select the image and insert it into the design space.

Resize the image to your desired size and hit Go.

Position the cut on the mat and hit Go

Turn the dial on the machine to Custom and select Stencil - 0.4 mm in the drop down list 

(depending on your material this could take some trial and error to find the right setting)

The material I used was a plastic divider from the office supplies department at any store. I also had good luck with laminator sheets (heat sealed by itself). I tried thin cutting mat material but was not able to cut it without a deep cut blade. This material seems to work just fine so I didn't feel the need to run out and get a deep cut blade. If you try other material that works well for you, feel free to leave the suggestions in the comments. I always like to have options, the cheaper the better! 

Stick the material on the cutting mat and cut your design

Bam! Instant stencil!

Using a dry erase marker, find the center of the mirror and stencil and make all the marks you need to apply it perfectly

Tape off any areas that won't be covered by the stencil. (I did this step now to act as a guide for laying down the stencil once it's sticky but you can do it after you apply the stencil as well.)

Now to make the stencil sticky so the etching compound won't bleed beyond the stencil. I wanted the stencil to stick to the surface, be easily removable, and reusable. Krylon Easy-Tack did exactly that! I didn't try any other products, so I can only vouch for this particular one for this project. Let me know if you use any others.  

Take the stencil outside (or into a well ventilated area) and apply a coat of Krylon Easy-Tack. Allow it to dry for a few minutes. When it is tacky, but not wet, apply it to the mirror. 

Then apply the etching compound (I won't go into detail here because there are plenty of tutorials out there on this process. No need to reinvent the wheel right?)

Once the glass is etched rinse the mirror off and clean the mirror with glass cleaner and you're done! 

The stencil method is so much easier to remove than using vinyl and less wasteful because you can reuse the stencil after removal. 

You can use these stencils for glass etching, painting, or whatever else you can think of! The Easy Tack keeps them sticky for several uses, and when it stops sticking you can reapply the Easy Tack for more uses. 

Fun, Easy, 20 Minute Pillow Tutorial!

I have come into a large stash of 27" squares of upholstery samples. This is a pretty decent size piece of fabric, but not really enough for one pillow and if you use two pieces, one for each side of the pillow, it leaves a lot of waste. So I figured out this super simple method to make one piece of 27" square fabric into a 15" pillow.

My fabric samples are discontinued upholstery samples, but you can use just about any fabric that you want, in varying sizes as well. This tutorial is meant to show you how to turn a large square of fabric into a pillow, with very minimal waste.

Start with your fabric, right side up. My fabric is 27" by 27" 

Fold all of the corners into the center, to meet at the center. 

Sew along each of the 4 sides, leaving half of the last seam open for stuffing. 

You could potentially stop here, turn it right side out, stuff it and close it. But I wanted mine to have more dimension, so I took it a step further. 

Fold each corner flat (think the opposite of how it will be when the pillow is finished). Mark a triangle that is 2" high and 4" wide on the corner with a fabric marker/pencil/chalk. 

Sew along that line and clip the corner off.

It should look like this. 

Turn it right side out..

And stuff it!

*This is where I took a break and waited patiently for Amazon to deliver my stuffing and forgot to take a picture when I finished up the other pillow.*

Once you have the pillow stuffed, close the seams with pins and close up the seam with the blind stitch (or whatever you choose to call it). 

These pillows look great with the seams up front, 

Or in the back! 

I love this pillow design! With all of the funky, trendy fabric samples, I've been making pillows for all my friends and family. It's a simple, easy and clean looking design. 

DIY Ombre Sunset Love Birds Wood Art

This is my favorite wood art project so far. I loved the lovebirds but I really wanted them to have a sunset in the background. I browsed a couple Ombre painting techniques and came up with my own technique. I've been using more of a "color wash" (watered down paint) technique on wood, so the grain shows through. I wanted to keep this effect in my sunset project. 

I starts with four sunset-ish colors. I put a glob of each on my "palette".  Start out with a piece of wood that is sanded to your preferred texture. My wood of choice is old, weathered fence paneling. 

With a damp foam brush paint your sun, and a circle of orange, pink and purple around the sun.

Keeping the foam brush damp, take some pink paint and drag from the pink circle halfway into the purple area. Blot the two colors together. 

Continue blending the rest of the colors and let it dry. 

After it dries, give it a few swipes with a fine grit sandpaper. Trace your love birds onto the wood.

And fill it in! 

Simple and Easy DIY Jewelry Hanger

As my jewelry obsession grows, my storage needs grow as well. I was putting hooks directly in the wall, but everytime I put another hook in the wall, I felt a little more guilty for putting another hole in the wall. So I came up with this project in my never ending attempt to re-purpose all our fence panels. 

I started with a piece of old fence paneling. I sanded it, painted it and then sanding off a little of the paint to make it look "rustic". 

I marked 2 rows for hooks, spaced every 2 inches, and staggered from one row to the next. I drilled pilot holes with a 1/16" drill bit to make it easier to get the hooks in. 

Then screw in all the hooks! I used vice grips to save my fingers from the screws. I added eye hooks on the top for hanging (not pictured).

After haning all my jewelry I realized that I should have made it bigger because I am out of hooks. 

How to transfer designs onto any canvas, with no artistic talent.

I am have creative talent to spare, but artistic ability... not so much. I get so frustrated sometimes when I'm working on a project and it doesn't come out perfect because my artistic ability is lacking. So I stumbled on this technique a while ago and felt like the internet needs to know about it!

First, find the design that you want to put on your piece. Re-size it on the computer and print it out. I do most of my re-sizing in Paint, it will even print big images onto several pages so you aren't limited to an 8.5"x11" design.

I didn't get a picture of the tracing paper, but you can purchase tracing paper in most craft stores. This is typically used for copying patterns onto fabric (at least that's what I remember using it for in 7th grade Home Ec. class). Place the tracing paper, color side down, on the wood, and place the design, right side up on top of that. Tape it down so it doesn't shift while you trace.

Trace the outline of the design.

After tracing is done, go over the design with your medium of choice. I generally use Sharpie, paint pen, or a fine paint brush. 

It's as easy as that, if you can trace, you can create!

Now go create: 

Wood Art Ideas here

How to make a wood Canvas

Pallet Wood Canvas

Here is the tutorial for making a wood canvas for whatever wood art you want. I use fence panels that have been "weathered" in my back yard for years. But you could easily use pallets for this as well. 

Decide on your dimensions and cut your pieces accordingly. I always cut two supports just and little bit narrower than the width of the canvas.

Wood Glue doesn't offer much support when it's wet, but I felt it would help keep it together once it dried. 

  

I measured depth of the board and doubled it and found nails that were just a hair shorter in length.  When hammered through the back it won't come through the front. No visible hardware. 

 I hammer in 4 nails for each board, and each overlap. That is a lot of nails, but it holds!

That's it! Sand it until the texture is to your liking, then be creative! 

Use eye hooks or drill holes and use twine to hang. Beautiful!

Wood Art Ideas Tutorial

Design Transfer Techniques