My Cricut Scrapbooking

Posts Tagged ‘Cutting Vinyl’

I finally got to use my Cricut Lite Carousel Cartridge.  I made a red and white Big Top cut out of vinyl for a circus themed display at work.  I had the blade depth on 6, pressure 2 and speed max.  I cut the base out in white, then the top layer out in red.  I used clear contact paper from Wal-Mart as transfer tape.  I picked up the red layer and attached it to contact paper.  Eyeballed the placement and attached it the white layer and the peeled off the contact paper.  It turned out great! I love vinyl!!

My sister-in-law came over yesterday and said I need to update my window because Christmas is past!  I still had my Christmas vinyl decorations up.  I decided to cut a few images in vinyl from a cricut cartridge that I have not used in a very long time.  Can you guess what cricut cartridge I used?

If you guessed the Home Decor cricut cartridge you are right.  I receive lots and lots of e-mails about where I buy my vinyl from so I am going to go over it real quick.  I buy it from uscutter.com. My friend and I go in on the purchase together so we can buy more colors for our money.  They have flat rate shipping so if you order several rolls it is a deal.  On average a sheet of vinyl breaks down to be .65 per sheet versus the $5.00 per sheet that Provocraft sells there vinyl for and it is the same thing.  Oracal 631.

I got my Home Decor cricut cartridge from Wal-Mart a few years ago on Black Friday.  Back then it could only be found in that bundle.  I cashed in some cricut rewards points and will be giving some cartridges away over the next few weeks.  This week it will be the Home Decor cricut cartridge.

Please leave a comment on this post to be entered in the drawing.  The Drawing will be held next Tuesday March 30th (because that is my next day off)

You have to watch this Youtube video that shows how to make glitter balls.  I tried it today and LOVE it!

I used Mop & Glo instead of the Future as shown in the video.  It worked perfect.  I cut the names out in white vinyl on my cricut using Sure Cuts A lot.

Here are the pictures.  I got the ornaments at Michaels on sale 50% off.  I got these with a little bit of the pearl glaze on them and they still turned out very pretty.

My friend let me borrow her Serenade cricut cartridge that she got with her black cricut expression.  I decided since I have metallic gold vinyl that I would cut a bird cage from the Serenade Cricut Cartridge.  I also had some left over room on the 12×12 piece of vinyl so I added two different Christmas ornaments that I thought would look pretty cut out in the gold.

I get asked a lot where I buy my vinyl.  I buy it at www.uscutter.com. The Oracal 631 vinyl is the same exact vinyl that Provocraft sells (2) 12×24 sheets for $9.99.  The metallic gold that I have used is a little bit more expensive then the regular colored vinyl.  It is  $26.99 for a 24″ x 10″ roll of metallic gold vinyl.  They have flat rate shipping fee of $9.99 per order.  On every roll of vinyl that I have ordered I have been able to cut 33 12×24 sheets from it.  What I do is order vinyl with my friend.  We pick out the colors together and then split the cost and divide the rolls when they come.  That way we get more colors for our money and save a lot on shipping since it is all flat rate on one order.  If you decided to order just the metallic gold roll of vinyl.  $26.99+$9.99=$36.98/33=$1.12 per 12×24 sheet and that is way cheaper then the “Provocraft” vinyl and it is the best deal that I have been able to find.  The last order my friend and I placed was for 9 rolls of vinyl and they each came in there own box as packaged by the manufacture and then repackaged in a larger box.  Every single roll of vinyl arrived in perfect condition.

Here is the vinyl on my 12×12 cricut mat after I cut my design.  (Sorry it is kind of hard to see.)  For the perfect vinyl cut you want to do the kiss cut.  Kiss cut means that you cut the vinyl top layer but not the paper backing that the vinyl is stuck to.  To achieve this your blade depth should be set on 6, your pressure should be on 2, (speed I had set on max).

The next step is to weed away all of the extra vinyl that is not part of the design.  I find it easiest to leave the vinyl adhered to the cricut mat and weed it that way.  I just use a Martha Stewart craft knife to poke the pieces I want to remove and kind of lift them off and pull them away from the design.  This is what it looks like after it is weeded.

The ornament on the left is from the Christmas Cheer cricut cartridge.

The Ornament on the left is from the Christmas Cartridge.

The bird cage is from the Serenade cricut cartridge.

You can buy transfer tape to lift the vinyl off the backing and adhere to your desired location.  I just use a roll of clear contact paper that I got from Wal-Mart.  It was less then $5.00 for a huge roll and it works just fine for me.  I am going to wait until daylight tomorrow to put these up.  I just love the color of the bird cage and how it turned out.  The gold sparkle really does not show up well in the picture but it is very pretty.

Recently my friend Lana and I bought a Yudu machine.  You can see the great deal that we got on it here. Lana has had it for this past week and loves it.  She came to work at midnight the other night to show me the wonderful t-shirts she made.  Everyone just raved over the t-shirts and what a nice job she did.  She said my ideas are getting better and better.  First I talked her into a Cricut Expression, YourStory, Gypsy and now a Yudu.  I have been spending a lot of time researching the most cost effective methods of trying to use this machine.  I found out just like the cricut accessories, Yudu accessories are not excluded on the Joanns coupon.  I had a few 50% off coupons and a bunch of 40% off coupons so I was able to stock up on ink.  I am going to try to make my first shirt tomorrow and wanted to check out some YouTube Yudu videos.  I want to learn as much as I can because emulsion sheets are not cheap and I don’t want to waste them.  I found these 2 videos on Youtube.  You kind of have to watch both videos.  If you don’t have a lot of time just make a note of how long she has to wait for the emulsion to dry and the timer for the image to burn on the first video.

On this video, Sandy gave the most incredible tip.  I almost fell out of my chair.

Her idea is amazing.  I have a whole roll of black vinyl that I have not even used yet.  In her YouTube comments she noted that she cut the image out on vinyl using her cricut and SCAL.  No drying time, No burning image time.  Cut the image on your cricut, adhere to underside of screen.  Tape edges and screen print like normal.  This idea is one I have to try and could be a wonderful money saver.  Emulsion sheets are 2 sheets for 19.99 at Joann’s with out a coupon.  Even with a 40% off coupon you would be paying $11.99 which is still $6.00 a sheet.  I buy my vinyl at www.uscutter.com. A 24″x 10″ roll of Oracle 631 black vinyl is $20.99.  (Lots of colors available, most colors are $23.99 per roll)  On all the rolls that I have purchased I can cut a minimum of 33 12×24 sheets per roll.    1 Sheet comes to .63 per 12×24 sheet.  They offer flat rate shipping of $9.99 per order.  Even if you only ordered 1 roll and paid 9.99 shipping it still would cost you .94 per sheet.  That is a real money saver against the cost of emulsion, plus you don’t have the dry and image burn time to deal with. I order vinyl with my friend and split the rolls.  We get to order more colors that way and it is so much cheaper then buying it at the store.  Oracal 631 is the EXACT same stuff that Provocraft packages and sells 2 12×24 sheets for $9.99.  I will be trying this method myself but obviously it does work because those t-shirts looked awesome.