Thursday's Tutorials #1

What does your Cricut Machine look like??

Before

After

Presonalize your Cricut with vinyl and give it a whole new look!

**My vinyl tutorial from start to finish:

Although my mat was sticky I wanted to make sure the vinyl wouldn't slip while cutting so I added masking tape to the edges before cutting.
I cut the vinyl using my green housing blade set at 6, speed at 3 (med.), pressure 3 (med.). I did not need multiple cuts.
The blue deep cut blade also works, I tested both and found that the green housing works just fine. If using the deep cut blade set at 4, speed at 3, pressure 3.
I cut two of the flourish designs.
After cutting my image using SCAL and my Cricut machine, I carefully remove the outer pieces of the vinyl, because this image is so detailed I cut away at the edges a little at a time so not to get the sticky side of the vinyl stuck on the detailed flourish design.
I then carefully remove any inner vinyl pieces that are not part of my flourish design.
After removing any unneeded vinyl I then place clear transfer tape over my design, I cut excess transfer tape and around the image, then burnish (rub) the image so it will stick to the transfer tape.I turned the image over then slowly and carefully removed the backing from the vinyl, the tricky part was to keep those tiny dots where they belonged.

Now the wonderfully fun part is to place the beautiful design onto my Cricut. I carefully placed my design where I wanted it to be, then rubbed it again. Yes, you guessed it slowly and carefully remove the transfer tape.... beautiful!
With the second flourish design I cut it apart because I only wanted to use portions of the image for the right side of my Cricut machine door. I followed the same steps as above applying the transfer tape, then removing the vinyl backing and placing it into position on my Cricut.
I also used SCAL with the two different fonts for the words.
Before....
After...
A few months ago I started a post over at the Cricut messageboard challenging others to decorate their Cricut machines, and the creations are amazing1 If you would like to see more ideas Click Here and get ready to be WOWED.
Now it's your turn.... I challenge you to decorate your Cricut machine.

**To view my original post on my blog along with a cut file of the flourish image click here