Vinyl – Page 3 – How I Can Do That

New Twist on Carrots

Making a new style out of throw away materials

The one bit of insight you have, when working for someone else, is just how much a business throws out. And the quality of their garbage. And you also gain insight as to what kinds of businesses subsidize other businesses for you marking your product down for their employees.

I personally know of a few companies who have switched to the Lean Operational method of running a business. And even then it still, somehow, manages to amaze me how much gets thrown out.

Maybe it’s the fact that I grew up where we didn’t have as much as other people around us. Maybe it’s the fact that my mom created magic when she made the gifts we were given on less than a shoe string budget. Maybe it’s the fact that I carry on that frugality because our family budget can go farther and do more things when I reallocate and make do with the little I have, so the hard work of my husband can go elsewhere for family provisions.

This craft here is me on a plate, for you. This is me thinking outside of the box. This is me using materials where half of what you see is stuff that most people throw away.

If you are looking for a new infusion to your farm house style or Easter decor, this project is for you!

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Materials

8×10 Canvas Frame
Teal and Metallic Gold Acrylic Paint, with paint brush
2 Complimentary Ribbons
HTV Vinyl (Permanent Vinyl is another option)
Garden Now Open SVG
Leaves from Silk Flowers
Hot Glue Gun with Glue Sticks
Pliers
Crafting Knife or Scissors
Staples (optional)
Sandpaper (optional)

Prepping the Frame

First you want to remove the canvas from our frame so you can paint the frame for your reverse canvas. (If you’re new to Reverse Canvas, hold on for a moment and I will circle back to help you through this process.) Paint the front and sides of your frame with Teal paint. If you keep the paint very thin, you will notice that the paint is dry to the touch in about three minutes. For this example, I went in a circle around the frame twice with the minimum amount of paint (dry brush method, where it look likes and almost feels like you’re brushing on already dry paint) and ended with full coverage of color with no waiting time to apply the Gold paint. It’s really not in my budget to play with Gold Leaf. I would use it for a client. But for the rustic feel I went for, metallic gold paint was enough to add a smidge of class to an otherwise rustic feeling project. And the gold, I used somewhere around a nickel size drop of paint and hit the corners and some edges. Then I set the frame to the side to dry while I added the HTV to the canvas.

First Time Creating a Reverse Canvas: From the back side of the Canvas remove the staples with a pair of pliers. (There are two different methods of putting the canvas back on the frame, which I’ll cover in steps ahead. I just want to let you know from the beginning, if you remove the staples right from the beginning, it can save you from potential problems in future steps. It’s not mandatory, but definitely one of my highly recommended steps.) If small holes next to the staples happen, don’t be afraid, you will not see them later on. If the staples are stubborn, feel free to cut the canvas next to the staple, with a crafting knife, and release the canvas. Set the canvas to the side and move forward with painting your frame, mentioned above.

TIPS: If you’re keeping with the rustic look, there’s no need to sand your frame. If you want a smooth looking frame, you will definitely want to sand your frame before you paint it. If the frame staples are visually unappealing to you, I highly recommend dry wall spackle. You can find some that is purple when you apply it and turns white when it’s dry. It’s very easy and convenient to use, with next to no guess work. A palate knife or even your finger is all you need to apply the spackle. Once it dries, you’ll quickly run over it with sandpaper a couple times. This will smooth out your edges. And when you paint your frame, no one will know that you used putty to fill in the frame cracks. (This is the same method I use when I want to use a frame that for one reason or another was gouged or dropped.

Applying Vinyl to the Canvas

When you go to cut your HTV (High Temperature Vinyl) from your cutting machine, remember to mirror your image. Once you’ve weeded your vinyl, you will place your frame on top of your canvas, so that you can see exactly where you want to press your carrier sheet down on the canvas. (This step is mostly important if you have a few small holes in the canvas that you’re working around. If you’re canvas came off the frame undamaged, than feel free to skip using the fram as a point of reference.) Follow our vinyl’s directions for heat and pressing time. These settings vary. Once you’re vinyl is attached, proceed to reattaching your canvas to your frame.

What if I choose to use Permanent Vinyl? I have successfully used permanent vinyl on canvas. I prefer HTV over 651 (or permanent) because once I have it adhered I do not have to worry for one moment about humidity causing the vinyl to lift. But please do not be shy with using permanent vinyl. You will still want to use an iron to press your Canvas. If there’s any moisture in the fabric, the iron will get that dried out and prepped for your permanent vinyl. Once you place your vinyl, you will want to make sure to have your project on a hard surface that you can press down with a scraper or squeegee. The more attention that you use with burnishing that vinyl down will pay off in the end with a longer life to your craft. Remove your transfer tape and then move forward with attaching the canvas back onto the frame.

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Reapply Canvas to the Frame

There are two ways of doing this; hot glue gun or staples.

Method Hot Glue Gun: Apply a liberal amount of hot glue to the back of your frame. Flip it over and position it over your canvas before pressing down and attaching the two together.

The benefit of this method is that it is so quick! Any skill level of crafter can do this application. The important thing to remember is that you have to move quickly so your glue doesn’t cool down on you. AND you will want to try and manage how much glue you use. Too little and the canvas won’t want to stick to your frame. Too much and you will have guaranteed seepage of glue that you will have to clean up. My recommendation is err on the side of a little too much and keep the glue a little off center. It’s better if it seeps out of the outside edge instead of the inside edge. With an inside edge seep, you will need to try and scrape the glue off the canvas or risk having what looks like slug trail on your canvas.

Method Staples: Flip your frame upside down. Position your canvas on top of the frame. Take your staple gun and staple at the top center of your frame. Gently pull your canvas down and place a staple in the center bottom of the frame. Gently pull the canvas to one side and staple in the center of that side. Gently pull on the other side of the canvas and staple in the center of that side. This is called Stretching Canvas. You will then go through the whole rotation again, moving out from center. On a frame this size, you should have about 5 staples across the top and bottom. And about 7 down the sides.

In my opinion I recommend stretching your canvas with the Staple Method. Anytime you add anything to canvas, if it’s not taunt, the weight of your project will warp the appearance of your canvas.

I’m in a crafting group where many of the crafters there swear by the hot glue gun method. In that group I withhold this information because in that setting it’s more important to have these ladies soak up the success of accomplishing a craft that they might not otherwise have attempted.

Here, I want to give you further information because I want you to make an education decision based off of the goal you are after. If you are making this to sell at a craft fair, or you’re decorating for an event that you want professionalism for, I want to set you up for success in these moments. And I know we are not face to face so I can’t use my tone or non-verbal cues to fill you in on this. I am by no means dogging on the hot glue method. In fact, in this example I’m showing you I couldn’t find my staple gun and so I in fact used a hot glue gun. I know the value of stretching canvas and so even with a hot glue gun, I still stretched my canvas. It took much longer than with a staple gun. And if I were using something of more weight than paper carrots, I can assure you that I would not trust hot glue to keep my standard of professionalism to clients. (I know my limitations with hot glue guns, and I’m woman enough to admit that there are many other crafters out there who are geniuses with hot glue. I have skills, but I am not a hot glue gun goddess.)

I want you to feel comfortable with your skill level and what goals are for this project. If what you have available is a hot glue gun, you’re not at all comfortable with stretching canvas, and you’re new to reverse canvas making–PERFECT! Know that you can make a beautiful and professional looking canvas using this method. If you want the challenge and extra security that staples offer, than stretching your canvas is exactly what you’re looking for.

Once your canvas is attached, you will want to trim off the extra canvas. You can either use a crafting knife and cut away on the outer edge of the frame. Or you can use a pair of scissors, angle you blade into the back of the frame, and trim the canvas back.

With clean edges, it’s now time to add those carrots!

Carrots

This is the part that I’m most excited about. These carrots are made completely from scraps that most of the times end up in the trash or recycling bins.

Most of these segments are made from triangles and parallelogram scraps about 3″ wide. Some wider, some less. All of these were from scraps from an explosion box I made a few months back. The card stock was 5 different textures and shades of orange. In fact, one of the orange papers was actually faded from being left out in front of a window. The segments you see above were not triangles and so I pre-folded them in triangular forms to make it quicker to shape and hold with a small drop of glue.

These single cones I then stacked with each other. On a few of the carrots I placed the glue on the back of the cone. Most looked better with the attachment point being at the front of the cone.

I made a few extra carrots than I had space for on the canvas, because I wanted to have some choices of which ones looked better than others. In fact, one carrot had a herringbone look to it. And since it didn’t have the same feel as the others, that one got set aside for a future project.

Once I got the length of carrots that I was happy with (a few were 4″ long and others were as much as 8″), I went into my bin of silk flowers that have seen better days. In fact, they were part of the flowers that I bought from a wedding planner who was selling all of her inventory. I was after her roses, but she gave me her entire flower collection. These leaves were actually from some geraniums and daffodils. The daffodils were actually really beat up and were just collecting dust, because I couldn’t use them for events. And this was the moment that I could actually give these greens a purpose. Other than purchasing silk ferns, these greens were actually quite perfect.

What makes these carrots so special in the crafting world is that it embraces the cubism element from the art world. I’ve seen a lot of carrots made from yarn and cloth, styrofoam and foam. These paper carrots give talking points and structure. And this structure is what was great for placing in the frame, with the ability to break free from the frame (giving a nod to surrealism).

Finishing Touches

Once I found the placement that I liked for these carrot shapes, I glued them down with hot glue gun.

Due to the light weight nature of this project, attaching the ribbon with hot glue is enough. However, if you’re creating for a professional item, you will want to use a stapler to attach you bottom layer of ribbon to the frame. For the top ribbon attachment, E6000 glue would be better than hot glue. But hot glue does do the job for a non-sellable project.

Please comment below and tell me how this spring time project turned out for you. Pictures are even better. I love seeing what other people make!

The SVG used in this post can be found here

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Living Life In Color

Options For Creating Faux Stain Glass Windows

With the increase of daylight, the approach of spring, and the first thoughts of Easter sprout ideas of how to bring new life and color into our lives.

This week end I’m participating in a crafting challenge. And one of the group crafts was a faux stain glass window.

When I go into these challengers, I focus on using the supplies in my office and only make a new supply purchase if I don’t have an item, or cannot think of an alternate item. Can I use a flat canvas instead of a framed canvas? Have my boys recently broken a toy that I can give a second life to? Have I recently purchased something that came in beautiful packaging that I can use to add dimension or further details?

I LOVE creating multi-medium products!

For this faux stain glass project, I didn’t have a framed piece of glass. (There are products on the market for making faux stain glass.) And I didn’t make that purchase because I have glass items I could pull from. What I chose to use was a half completed family schedule project.

I finally completed our family schedule for my early readers.

For over a year this picture frame hung, waiting for the inspiration for how to complete it. Do you have a project, or dozen, like that?

Well, this was the perfect glass for me to work with. All the vinyl already on the glass was placed on the front of the pane. And for faux stain glass, all the work is done on the back.

If you want to make a faux stain glass for your holiday switch out, an upcoming event, or as a fun project with your children, this is perfect for you. I’m working on my own designs to add to my shop. You might find another cut file artist who have some stain glass patterns. Or you can use a blank coloring book picture (children’s cartoon coloring book, adult coloring book, a blank mandala, or any other image). For these pages, all you have to do is upload them into your cutting machine program. When cutting out your glass outline, use a permanent vinyl that is the same color on the front and back. If you choose a vinyl that is printed or colored on one side and white on the back, you will have a white outline from your viewing side of your glass.

One common problem you may not avoid is your faux stain glass lines not releasing from your transfer tape. I have never had difficulty transferring to glass before. But even with all the tricks I know, I scrapped my first cut of vinyl and had to go with a Take Two.

I’m not sure if the problem was this pane of picture frame glass, the size of the project (10″ x 13″), or that my transfer tape was too sticky. But I did have to use my nails to scrape off the bottom quarter of my vinyl. So I adhered the transfer tape to both legs of my pants. I got the tack down to a barely sticky level. The vinyl still lifted in a couple of places, but at lease it released. The next time I do this technique with vinyl I am going to use transfer paper and see if the less tack released better.

An example of some extensive lifting of vinyl

To minimize the amount of lifting I recommend starting in a corner and slowly folding the transfer tape back on itself. As you start to see the lift, immediately start to press it back down with your finger. If you go too quickly, you will more thank likely have large sections pull back up from the glass. With the aid of your weeding tool, you can reposition and press down. However, it becomes more difficult to prevent creases in the vinyl when the uplifting sections get longer. So the sooner you can press these pieces down the better.

Another common problem is trapped air bubbles. You may not see it on this back side. But it is obvious from the front of the glass.

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To overcome air bubbles, you will want to pierce the vinyl with the sharp point of our weeding tool or other needle. With a way for the air to escape, you can now use your finger nail to press the air out. This will also press the vinyl down. When you flip the glass back over you should notice that the bubble is gone.

If the air did not escape the bubble, then go back in with your weeding tool and make the hole a little bigger.

There have been several times I’ve done this on other projects. Most of the time the hole seals itself up. In a worst case scenario there will be a small wrinkle. But it will only be visible from the back side.

Once your vinyl is laid, you are ready for the fun part. Painting!

This time around, I tested a few different application methods to help you decide how you want to make your faux stain glass. In the picture below you will notice that the paint looks different between the greenery, tulips, and sky/clouds. I used three different preparations of acrylic paint. But in the past I have also used washable children’s finger paint and tempera paint. So don’t think you are limited to paint choices.

This is the paint side of the glass pain. You can see the difference of the three different acrylic techniques described below.

Glue Mixed With Acrylic Paint

What you see on the greenery is a mixture of Mod Podge with a couple drops of acrylic paint.

Depending on the directions you read, you might be told to use Mod Podge, white glue, or clear glue. The bottom line is, they’re all glue and they’re going to act the same. The problem I had with this method is actually a couple fold. First, glue clumps and thickens horribly the longer you work with this mixture. And even with a fine painting brush, your painting surface is going to increase the longer you work with the glue. With just the greenery portion, the tip of my brush doubled in size by the time I finished. So to combat the thickening glue paint mixture, start with your smaller/finer detailed areas first and end with your larger surface areas.

Another problem that I had with this method was the inconsistency of pigment placement. It didn’t matter what brush strokes I used, the color inconsistency was worse than a dog’s fur that is suffering from hot spots.

I kept flipping my glass over to check the visibility and progress. A second coat did not smooth things out. In the end I had to apply a third coat (by which the glue was already thick) where I was blobbing on dots right next to each other. Fortunately, at this point I was working with two shades of green. I took a toothpick and “drew in” leaf veins, blending in the shades. It brought a cohesion that was greatly missing.

My recommendation with this method: apply your glue/paint liberally. If you are using more than one color or shade in a single section, apply first at your lines and then work your way in to where you want the colors/shades to meet.

Acrylic Paint

My favorite paint to work with is acrylic paint. If it were possible to be in tune with an art medium, this is tied for first place with me. (It’s partner in crime is fabric.)

I was quickly frustrated with the glue mixture, that I decided to go straight to acrylic paint by itself. You will see this demonstrated in the blue sky and white clouds. (The clouds are not visible in the final product, because I painted the back of the picture frame holder white for cohesion.)

If you want paint brush stokes to add character to your glass, this is probably the medium of choice for you. The sky I applied with side to side brush strokes. The clouds I applied with circular strokes. So this is very easy to add textures and definition to your glass.

Here is the problem with this method. The front and back of your glass are going to look different. The front of the glass automatically gives the appearance of gloss. When acrylic dries, the finish is matte. Not to mention, if you’re choosing acrylic you’re choosing your stroke pattern. Your pattern is going to take precedence over painting over the finite edge of your vinyl (or permanent marker if that was the tutorial/directions your chose to follow).

That being said, with all the care and precautions I took, I was able to stay in the lines better with plain acrylic than I was with the glue and acrylic mixture. There was absolutely noway I could prevent going over the lines with the glue.

With these first two options, there was absolutely no way that I could keep the lines clean so that both sides were presentable. And I tried.

So that leads me to the third option I tested.

My recommendation: if you want visible brush strokes or create an umbre effect, this method is for you.

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Acrylic Paint Pens

I chose this paint method for the tulip section, because I love visiting the Tulip fields each year. I love the bearded tulips and the multi colored ones alike. And if you couldn’t guess, I have an affinity for the red tulips with yellow tips.

And the acrylic pens were perfect for this kind of detail!

Again, I used the materials that i already had in my crafting stash. My acrylic pens are generic, but they did the job. And I can’t wait to purchase a better quality product to use.

For as much as I loved this method the best, over all the numerous products and techniques I’ve ever used on glass, they still had their own drawbacks. My number one problem is that the tips were so small in comparison to the size of my project. It’s a good thing that I find coloring calming and an avenue to my happy place. This was probably the most time consuming paint application.

Trial and error with this product is that the paint pen wants to apply a layer of paint too thin. I regularly had to shake the paint down to the tip. And about halfway through the tulips, I had to compress the tip to purposely create a small pool of paint to spread out.

Another draw back for this application method is that you cannot blend your colors. I, for one, have a pet peeve about muddying my pens. They can be ink, watercolor, or paint. I cannot muddy my tips. I need true colors. And because of this preference I worked with the yellow first, then went back through with the red. Even with my toothpick trick, the yellow was too dry to blend with using that method.

My recommendation: if you want to blend with the pens,work sections at a time. And if you like keeping your tips clean, leave a hair line separation between colors.

Another bonus for this method is that you have complete control over every application line of the paint. You have full control over not painting on or over the lines for each section. So if you want to have a flawless back and front, for duo viewing, this method is a must!

Drying Times

Maybe your method of choice is less about application and more about drying time. Believe me, I’ve conscientious about this because I have young children. Anything that takes long drying times I have to safe guard unless I want smears, prints, or transfers to my furniture and walls.

Acrylic Paint was the quickest. Especially since I only needed one coat of paint. The sections were dry pretty much when I finished the tulips. I give it an estimate of 20 minutes. As I mentioned before, acrylic paint dries with a matte finish. So the bonus here is that you don’t have to test touch to see if it is done drying. You see the difference.

The Acrylic Pen comes in second place for drying time. I have no estimate for you because on glass there was no noticeable change that I could see. The finish is just as glossy as when you first apply it. I had to test touch for dryness. I didn’t have a clock in front of me, so it could have been a ten minute dry time or twenty (from first painted section in relation to when I finished painting the entire project.) I would have zero qualms about putting the picture frame back on after an hour of drying time.

Glue with Acrylic Paint is like watching paint drying. It’s a slow process. But if you have worked with Mod Podge you know. Whatever wet glue you choose, you already know that takes several hours to properly dry. Mod Podge takes 24 hours to cure. And all of the drying time is very much determined by how thick you choose to paint. My glue had about an hour to dry.It was still mildly tacky, but I had to put the cover back on so little fingers didn’t damage the work I did.

Final Thoughts

With larger sections, this is a project that I believe even self proclaimed non-crafters can do. The important thing is selecting the paint method that you are most comfortable using. If the word paint intimidates you, but you still enjoy coloring a color page or two, then you will feel right at home with using an Acrylic paint pen set. It literally feels like coloring with markers. If you prefer a quick and done method, grab a brush and your choice of acrylic paint. If you love glue and/or medium manipulation than the mixture of glue and acrylic paint is definitely for you.

Everyone is going to have a different preference or comfort level. You craft with what is comfortable with you and your expectations. This is what truly sets you up for success. Whether you are making a faux stain glass window, the background for another project, or even transforming a vase into something more note worthy for your centerpieces.

If you want to clean up the back side of your glass pane, so that it’s more presentable, here are two options. If you have a steady hand and are good at lining pieces of vinyl up, you can cut out a second set of lines and apply it on the backside. The second option is picking your paint of choice and paint over the colors on the original set of lines. For example, on my project I could use a black sharpie, black acrylic paint with a fine tip brush, or my black acrylic pen to re-establish my black lines.

It’s my hope that you now feel enabled and courageous to try something new.

Paint Is Your Friend

And right now we can all use a little more color in our lives!

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Make A File Do More

If you’ve been in any field long enough (craft, wedding, art, photography, name the occupation), you realize that you can collect files and ideas for eternity and use it once. Or… you can find a way to make one file work for you in countless ways.

For example, photographers take the time to develop their basic settings for editing a photo. With this setting saved, they take a photo, hit the saved button, the adjustments from the saved settings are automatically added, and then they make a few minor adjustments before going to the next photo. So instead of spending 15-30 minutes on one photo, they can have one done in a couple minutes.

The same can be done with cut files.

The perfect part of working the same basic cut file over and over again is that you create more value for yourself, save time (instead of always starting off from scratch), and you have a primed canvas ready to go for your next idea. Sometimes you have that perfect text or saying that you want to use, but don’t have the inspiration to make something unique to go with it. Think of it like your basics white T-shirt and jeans combo. It’s always ready to go and you just throw on something on top to make it just right for the moment.

If you set up shop at a craft fair, this is especially important for you. How many times have you heard someone comment that they like something, but it doesn’t quite fit them (whether style, color, whatever). By having one item a couple different ways, you decrease the chances of a whole lot of product going home with you AND find out how to optimize your sales by what style sells better. Plus, when it looks like someone is getting a one of a kind (instead of a cookie cutter) item, it’s most likely to cause a sale. It’s the thrill of buying what someone else can’t have.

Cohesion and simplicity work when you have one key element and you work it over and over again. That element is incorporated in everything. But it’s also slightly changed up.

For the next couple of weeks, I’m going to work a simple heart cut file over a few different mediums to show you what I mean by working the same file over again, for cohesion and still find a way to add diversity.

This week I’m going to use paper and vinyl with this Heart Card file.

The craft here is a card. But it has two different ways of decorating built in.

Each year, for Valentine’s Day, I write on hearts what I love about my boys. And I use the hearts as part of our house decorations. As you can see in picture 3, this card is perfect for standing on its side. However, my youngest is at the paper shredding stage. So instead of standing the hearts up all over the house and letting the boys scavenger hunting for their hearts, I will hang some decorative baker’s twine and hang the hearts like bunting/garland.

First things first, decorating. In the past I’ve done solid hearts and lace/doily hearts. I haven’t done a stain glass window style. And the leader, of one of the crafting groups I belong to) posted her heart idea using scrap vinyl. I loved her idea, because I have three small scraps boxes that I keep adding to. (I save scraps to minimize what I throw out.)

These scraps I cut into glass shard like pieces, triangles, squares… really I just grabbed my scissors and mindlessly cut away. The odd angled bits were probably my favorite ones for this project.

This was the set up for one of my sons’ class valentines. He’s a crafter and went to town, happily making his valentines.

There were a lot of the red heart components (from my Hearts collection) that were left over from prepping for my son to make his class valentines. And I was particularly in love with the thin spiral looking heart. So I couldn’t let those go to waste.

And with a little glue, the finishing touches go on quick and easy. I ran out of With a little glue, the finishing touches go on quick and easy. I ran out of glue stick and used some Elmer’s spray adhesive. Both glues worked great and I had no issue with the card stock sticking to the top of the vinyl (which was a combination of shiny, glitter, metallic and holographic).

After completing my 12 cards here (in addition to the 11 I prepped for my son), there is one bit of advice I want to give with the small pieces of vinyl. It sucks pulling the backing off of all those tiny pieces. If you puncture the vinyl, it really doesn’t show when you press it down and use a scraper to burnish the vinyl down. So you don’t have to worry too much about that. It was easier to take one larger piece of scrap, remove the backing, and cut as you go. However that has its own drawbacks. You don’t have the freedom to lay the piece down to see if it fits in a space. Nor can you adjust it if you don’t like the color combination of a neighboring piece. It is quicker, but you lose out on the control of how everything fits and looks. I wasn’t so much concerned about that in this project, because the red card stock on top framed or covered up areas that I was less than impressed with.

If my 80’s Retro hearts are not quite your vibe, please don’t dismiss this heart or technique. There are so many options out there. If you only use one or two colors of vinyl, you will have a completely different look than what you see in these pictures. If you’re not feeling the vinyl, you could do something If my 80’s Retro Funk hearts are not quite your vibe, please don’t dismiss this heart or technique. There are so many options out there. If you only use one or two colors of vinyl, you will have a completely different look than what you see in these pictures. If you’re not feeling the vinyl, you could do something different. Use Solid or Printed card stock. Paper Mache pages from a novel or sheet music onto cardstock. Or even use photographs for the non-scored heart. Glue on lace or doily on top of drawings, painting, or photos. There are so many ways of making this Heart Card work for cards or decorations for a wedding or other event!

Thanks for joining me today! Be sure to come back next week for the next installment for creating cohesion for an event with one file.

Files Used This Week

Click the links for Heart Card and Hearts to see product descriptions and get these files for your projects.

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Modify to Personalize

It never fails! There is a picture of a loved one that you want to use (whether for a gift, a wedding, various other reasons), BUT the background just ruins the picture. Do not fear! This post is for you.

My son has seen me make a few shadow boxes for gifts and what he wanted to gift more than anything else was a shadow box of him and his BFF for her upcoming birthday. The best, and most recent, picture that I have of them is of course the one that had a pile of yard waste behind them. Fortunately, I have a trick or two up my sleeve.

Background removed and a new back ground added

There are a few good free online programs that you can use to remove your background. For this particular project, I used Remove BG, because they’ve always offered a good selection of different backgrounds with three different blur settings. If my count is correct, there are 93 as of the time of writing this post. And the best part is that you do not have to be computer suave to change your back ground. All you have to do is upload the picture and hit “remove background”. You will have the focal point of the photo on a checkered background. You can then superimpose this image on any photo you have or you can hit “Edit” to add a background from this program.

Once I downloaded the picture, with new background, there was one additional step I needed to take before submitting my picture online to print and pick up at my local photo department. From the photo editor that came standard on my computer, I resized my picture to a larger file size. (I had gotten the error message, online, saying that I had low resolution.) With this larger file size, I was able to submit my photo. And it printed exactly as you see above. We’re not talking professional quality, but perfect for this project.

While we waited for the 5 x 7 print for my 6 x 6 shadow box, I designed a layered cloud shadow box mat to make the print fit seamlessly in the shadow box. BFF Shadow Box can be found here. My son added glitter to the second layer and chose the font, text, and vinyl choice. My about to be six year old was so disappointed that he couldn’t do the shadow box from start to finish, but he has no idea just how much he did create in the design. So in honor of the work he did, all proceeds from the sale of this cut file will go to my partner orphanage in Rwanda for the education of the students there.

For assembling the shadow box, I started by attaching the 36″ fairy lights, with hot glue, to the back panel of the shadow box.

Many shadow boxes have a finish where you can attach the lights to the inside side and top/bottom panels so you can have the lights shine through the layers. This particular shadow box has a wax like finish and the glue would not adhere. The back panel was brown and I had painted with black matte chalk paint. The hot glue loves this paint that I had no problem attaching for a back light.

With battery pack lights there are two options for how you mount the switch. This particular shadow box had a slot in the top for coin deposits. For wall mounting, or if you plan to decorate the top of the frame, this is a great option. However the kids I’ve gifted shadow boxes to have enjoyed having the ability to sit the frame on a table top so they can turn it on and off as they please. For this reason, I prefer the second option for a hidden switch. All that I had to do was take an X-Acto knife to the bottom corner of the back panel (where the battery pack was nearest glued to) and cut out a small notch. Then I hot glue the battery pack to the back panel. Make sure the screw side is out so that battery changes can be made without taking the pack off.

Once the lights are secured, I turned my attention to the shadow box layers. 1/4″ raised adhesive tape is perfect to attack the two cloud layers and photo. The depth that you see in the final product is actually from two layers of the raised tape stacked on each other.

All the prep work is finished. The vinyl text is applied to the outside of the glass. Place the cloud layers inside the shadow box. Then close the box up by placing the back panel.

This project is perfect for birthdays, weddings, showers, and celebration of life. And now that you know how to remove backgrounds, you can now use your favorite photos that you thought was unusable because of what was in the background.

If you have any questions on how to do this project, or want to know how to do some other project, please leave a comment below or email me at info@pacificnorthwesteventdesigns.com

See you next week!

All proceeds from the sale of this cut file will go to helping Rwanda orphans with their school tuition.

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Don’t Throw That Out Yet!

It doesn’t matter if you’re an Artist, DIY Bride, Crafter, or a Just Because-er, you will create something and there’s just nothing you can do to save that project from the junk heap. Sometimes we get wrapped up in our own emotions of wasted time, wasted materials, dashed dreams of overextended ambitions, and everything else, that we forget even the Master Artists had unsuccessful projects.

If you’ve spent anytime in art history classes, or been around artists long enough, you probably already heard about this. All the Greats recycled their canvas. That’s right! Da Vinci, Rembrandt, Picasso, I could go on and on… they all painted over something they created before. The lesson that we can take from this is that we can create over something that we tried to create before.

This was a wood block that I had to give up on after running through Plan A to Plan F. That’s right, I tried to correct and original problem five other times! Am I stubborn? Yes. Am I determined? You better believe it. Do I succeed at everything? No. But, I give myself permission to set aside what is clearly not working. For this particular project, I discarded about 16 hours of trying to make it work and grabbed a new blank. In less than an hour, I executed my main vision without having to go through another plan letter. Sometimes scrapping a project to start over on the same vision is completely necessary. And that is when your success comes.

Here is where things get good for this block of wood. Even though I had painted it on all sides (in a color I don’t usually work with) there are ways of recovering materials and reusing it in something completely different. I had fully intended on sanding the glitter and acrylic paint off, but inspiration hit and I really didn’t want to waste the time of stripping the wood for a clean base. Instead I challenged myself with this cotton candy pink by adding black, blues and purple to the pink and creating a base that gave off a vibe of sunrise or sunset. And that in turn inspired the three variations of Darkness To Light. (Click here to see all three!)

What is amazing about blending colors and adding textures into your paint is that you can cover over even the raised text from stencil painting and the glitter. Acrylic paint doesn’t cover glitter at all. It always manages to shine through. So if you decide to not go with glitter ontop of a project you previously used glitter on, I recommend taking the time to sand the glitter off. I’m sorry I could not get a picture of the glitter coming through (I gave up after 30 attempts), but my oldest son kept playing with my lights to get the glitter to sparkle. So if you know kids, when they play with lights you know the glitter is still there. However after much finagling, I was able to get one angle where my camera did finally pick up on the raised lettering. But unless I point out stuff like, most people I know pretty much never pick up on the fact that I reused this wood block.

The raised letters are right here on the bottom just above this cloud line.

Normally at this point in a project I spray a couple of coats of clear acrylic spray over the top. It seals in the paint to it doesn’t transfer paint when you knock it against something. And I love using HTV over paint. I get a better end product with it and the vinyl stays on without lifting. (Permanent vinyl tends to lift when you have higher humidity levels.) The clear acrylic spray also smooths out your surface, making it more flat when you adhere your vinyl. Coming up the next few shots, you will see what the raised textured acrylic paint did to the vinyl. But this is something that spray acrylic and HTV really does overcome.

Instead of my usual route, I went with the unsealed acrylic paint and permanent vinyl. Going into this, I knew that there were a few obstacles that I was going to have to overcome; transfer tape stripping the paint off the wood block and the vinyl not adhering to the uneven surface.

Transfer Tape Stripping of the Paint

This is the #1 problem most crafters complain about when they work with paint and vinyl! You will find it everywhere, on every forum where people are asking for help. You will get the standard answers of use a transfer tape with less tack, use transfer paper, use press and seal…. I’m telling you that you don’t need to do any of this! The reason is that the problem isn’t the level of stickiness. The problem is that you’re pressing your transfer material onto your paint with the same force that you’re using to adhere your vinyl. Both have tack. They’re both going to stick. So please don’t spend more money chasing a solution that is still going to be part of the problem. I know because I’ve tried all the different tack and I still pulled up paint before I learned this.

Solution: DO NOT burnish your transfer tape with your vinyl.

Instead: gently lay your transfer tape in position and very lightly press it to your surface. The goal here is keep your vinyl in position while you use another tool to press down ONLY on the vinyl. With Darkness and Light being larger letters, using my fingers was enough to transfer the vinyl. For my thin letters here, I used my cutting machine’s scoring tool. This gives the ability to press down as hard as you like. You will not adhere your transfer tape to your paint. And you’re not going to scratch your unprotected paint either. Absolutely none of my paint peeled or flaked off. You can zoom in on the following pictures and see for yourself. All of my built up layers of acrylic stayed the same as they were before I applied my vinyl.

Vinyl Adhering to an Uneven Surface

There’s generally two problems under this category. One actually getting your vinyl to adhere and not lift (you’re not going to get a complete seal). The other problem is purely cosmetic, you’re not going to have that glossy (or matte) smooth finish.

For the cosmetic, unsealed raised paint is never going to give you a flat smooth vinyl esthetic.

As I stated earlier, there are ways around this. But the way that I painted and left it unsealed…this is what it looks like. If you choose to work with vinyl on an uneven surface and want to try for the perfect finish, I recommend finding an appropriate sealer to help minimize the highs and lows of your surface and then aim for placement to go where there is the least amount of height disparity. Chances are that you’ll probably still won’t get that flawless look, but you’ll get close. Just remember that the more layers of sealer you put on top you will have to allow more than enough time for it to fully dry or cure before applying the vinyl. Vinyl needs to have a dry surface to adhere to because your sealer has to breathe to dry/cure. (This is most definitely not the project you want to use the wet method of applying vinyl. Save that for a glass or plastic surface that don’t need to breathe.)

That being said, there is a solution to maximizing the potential of your vinyl adhering properly.

Once you’ve removed your transfer tape, go back through and reburnish your vinyl. Transfer tape hides alot. You never see what is not fully burnished until you remove the transfer tape. As you can see here, there was plenty of places where I didn’t press down on the vinyl enough the first time, or because the text is so thin the transfer tape pulled some of it up. In reality, for this project it was both of those things.

With nothing protecting my vinyl, I didn’t want to scratch or crease it with my scoring tool. So I flipped my tool over and used the other side. It is wider than my thin text, but it also didn’t have a plastic seam running down the middle. So I had a smooth surface to go back over my vinyl and burnish it again without fear of scratching my vinyl or my paint for that matter.

I’m sure that the question will be asked, “Did your vinyl lift?”

At the time of writing this blog, my vinyl has sat untouched for over 48 hours and looks the exact same as the finished project picture above. I have every reason to believe that I’m in the clear and the vinyl will stay as is. You are more than welcome to ask in the comments below for a future check in. I’m more than glad to fill you in on the status.

I am going to add one observation I’ve had with vinyl though. Where you put your project is totally going to effect the longevity of what you made. For example, I have bathroom art which has vinyl on top of acrylic and were sealed. the two pieces that I have in there, the vinyl on the piece nearest the shower lifted after 6 months. So much so that I had to apply some glue underneath to keep the vinyl on. The glue solved the problem and I haven’t had lifting since. The piece that is about two feet further away had one small piece lift, but not enough for me to get glue in there to reattach it. Since the same vinyl was used on both pieces, I know it wasn’t the vinyl itself. It was the humidity from being close to the shower. Vinyl does not like humity. So be aware of where your final placement is going to be. And let that information help you make decisions on which materials you are going to use for your project. Again, there are always solutions on how to fix things. But being aware is so very important for the longevity of your creations.

This was important to point out, because I will never put this Darkness to Light project in my bathroom or near my stove in my kitchen (where it would become exposed to steam). The uneven surface creates little pockets where steam/humidity can come in and loosen the adhesive bond.

Now that all is said and done, I am so happy with the outcome of this recycled project!

The scrapped project brought me so much tears and frustration. I actually hid it in my craftroom because of how many emotions is evoked in me. But it’s transformation brings me so much joy! Sometimes it’s hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that there is ugliness and frustration under the new design. It makes me wonder if all the Great Artists felt like this when they painted over something previously made.

Thank you for walking through this transformation project with me. I hope it inspires you not to give up on something that you’ve made that just doesn’t hit the mark on any level. These projects can see new life in a new direction.

Please comment below, sharing with my any transformation projects you’ve made. Or if you’re stuck on something and would like some perspective to help get unstuck. I’m here for you.

See you next week!

Find all 3 Darkness to Light here

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