Resticking Cricut Mats

So I have my "restuck" my Cricut mats many, many times.  But I have never done a good cleaning first.  Seems it re-sticks much better if you clean all the old "sticky stuff" off with Goo Gone first.

Here is how I re-sticky my mats now.

1.Take a bottle of Goo Gone and spread a light coat on you mat.  Let it sit for about 15 minutes.
2.  Take a plastic scraper and scrape all of the sticky stuff off of your mat.

  See the difference in this picture?  The bottom and left of the mat have been scraped after soaking the mat in a little Goo Gone.


3.  Scrape your whole mat and get all the gooey stuff off.

This picture shows just how much "sticky stuff" came off with just one swipe.  Ick!!

Here is the mat totally scraped.

4. I use Aleenes Tack It Over and Over glue and mix 50 %  Aleenes and 50 % water and then brush a thin coat of this on my mat. Let it dry about 20 minutes and do one more thin coat.  Let dry for 24 hours before covering with the protective film.

Before using it I "condition" it quite a bit by sticking my hands all over the mat over and over again. Also I may turn it upside down on my carpet. This helps "get some of the sticky out" after first re-sticking them. Also, if you have extra of your 50/50 mixture, put it in a sealed container and use it next time. It is so hard to mix the small amount that is needed!! Great way to save money and have more to spend on vinyl!!
As always, thanks for looking!!

Other Teacher Gifts

Here are the rest of the teacher gifts we did this year.  Just a little vinyl on a bottle of soap, tie a bow around the top and it is so dang cute!! Thanks for looking!!

Music Teacher Gifts

My daughter wanted to make a holiday gift for her music teacher and her orchestra teacher.  She hopped online and found some quotes she liked.  These are what we put together.  I love this svg file, the best part is it is a free download here: http://blueyecicle.blogspot.com/2010/05/super-sunday-free-svgs-free-prize-free.html
Thanks for looking!!

Holiday Plates

I picked up some plates from the dollar store and dressed them up for the holidays.  I made one of  these for each of my neighbors and filled them with yummy holiday treats.  I love this glass paint.  You can buy it at Michaels, use a coupon!!  

I cut a stencil out of vinyl and painted the plates.  Three coats of paint later and 40 minutes in the oven and viola, pretty plates.  Fill with these and you will be making lots of friends!!

Handmade Monk Cloth Towels

Those of us that create things ourselves truly understand the value of handmade gifts.  Despite our best intentions, we do not always have the time to handmake all of our own. 

Let me share one of my new favorite Etsy shops with you.  Terryle, she makes handmade monkcloth towels and embroiders them beautifully.  She takes custom orders and has many designs to choose from.  They are so reasonably priced for that difficult to buy for person on your gift list.  I just ordered some of my little, misc. things from her and she is shipping dirrectly to my out-of-state recipients. She will do that for you too!!  How perfect is that??

Wipe me ups are another super cool, unique, inexpensive handmade item she makes.  It is a handmade flip-flop style cloth that fits on your foot or hand with a super absorbant bottom to wipe up those drips and spills.

Anyway, if you want to check out her great shop you can find it here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/Terryle

Oh yeah, one more thing, in the spirit of full disclosure, I should tell you, Terryle is my mom!!  :)  Tell her Michelle sent you!!

Scrolly Fleur de Lis Frame

I made this frame for a friend to use for some holiday gifts.  I took the basic design from a cocktail napkin and simplified it a bit to cut better.  You can download it here in svg format if you like it.  Thanks for looking.

Here is a project my friend Cami made using this file. Find her facebook page full of her awesome vinyl projects here. She ungrouped it in SCAL and increased the space between the top and the bottom  so she had room for the whole name.  Thanks so much for sharing Cami, LOVE IT!! 

Remember if you are going to apply vinyl to a cutting board flip your image before you cut it and apply to the BOTTOM of the cutting board!  Happy Cutting!!

Cinderella Cake

I cut a Cinderella stencil out of cardstock for a friend to use to decorate her daughter's birthday cake.  She used edible glitter to get the lines on the cake and then filled it in with her favorite Wilton colors.  I think it looks great.  Happy Birthday Molly!!

Baby Items

 

I made a few baby gifts this past weekend.  The "I am cute" bib uses Sweetheart Script and Arial as fonts. Here is a free download for the Sweetheart Script  I used BoyzRGross as the font on the spit happens bib.  Free download is here.

Aquarelle is the font on the burp cloth (cloth diaper).  Free download here.  You can download the crown in SVG format here.

I used one of my go to favorites on the onsie, LD Delightful from Lettering Delights.  See this post for the download link.

As always, thanks for looking!!

More Water Bottles

Here are a couple more water bottles.  The font on Isaac is Mandingo.  Download it for free here.  Find the layered train in SVG format here.  Find the train tracks in SVG format here.  The font on Kaiya is LD Delightful from Lettering Delights.  Find it for $3 here. You can find the softball laced layered heart in SVG format here.
Thanks for looking!!

Wedding Vases

Front

Front

Back of both

We have a couple of weddings over the next couple weeks so I decided to make a couple of gifts.  Actually I made vases for both, but each is unique.  That is one cool think about handmade creations, they are each one of a kind.  Even if someone else makes the file, it is all about what you do with it!!
The font on the back (They all lived happily ever after) is called Angelina, you can download it for free here.
The font on the C is Shelley Volante BT, see this post for the download.  The font on the K, the word Clayton and the dates is plain old Bookman, comes standard with most versions of windows.  The font for the word Koning is Sweson, also came loaded in Windows.  The download for the flourish on the back is at this post.
Thanks for looking!!

A Great Holiday Dingbat

This is a great dingbat font for christmas.  Looks like most of the characters will cut GREAT.  The best part, it is free, you can download it here.  Happy creating!!

Wine Glasses

Here are a few wine glasses I made awhile back.  They are all wine glasses form the Dollar Store and I used outdoor (Oracal 651 or GT5) vinyl.  Thanks for looking!!

A Tumbler

Here is a tumbler I made for a friend/coworker's daughter who is a gymnast.  She designed it hereself, right down to the colors.  As a matter of fact, she know exactly what she wanted.  I think she did a pretty good job!!  Thanks for looking!!

My Dry Erase Calendar

We need to get organized.  This is something we threw together to help us do just that.

It is a dry erase calendar that we put inside our pantry door.  My daughter loves filling it out each month with the month on the top and filling in the dates, and whatever else we have going on.  We used dry erase vinyl amd removable vinyl.  The font is Aquarelle.  Thanks for looking!!

Cute Halloween Project Idea

How fun are these??  Love them.

Get all of the details here from the Celebration Shop

Creepy Soap!

My daughter had a blast making halloween soap dispensers tonight.  We bought some clear soft soap (coconut ginger - smells great) at the dollar store and pulled the label off the front.  While at the dollar store we also picked up some plastic creepy looking things, spiders, insects and such.  After wiping the soap containers off with goo gone, she shoved a few plastic, creepy, crawly things into each soap dispenser.  Then comes the best part; she created her first SVG in SCAL; the spider web.  She cut it out of silver vinyl and put one on the front of each soap dispenser (we made 4). She is the vinyl princess.  She can cut, weed and layer with the best of them. (she is 10!)  This was her first shot at making a file.  I am very proud of her.
Word to the wise if you make these soap dispensers: if you dont care if it is soap or hand sanitizer, use the hand sanitizer.  The creepy platic things tend to float to the top in the soap bottles.  And oh yeah, Macy wants to share her file with you, so find the svg of the spider web here.
Thanks for looking.

Pumpkins

Here is a three color layered pumpkin for your fall projects.  If you like it find the svg here.

Here is a two-color, single-layer pumpkin if you prefer.  Find the svg here.

Spiders

Here are some creepy spiders for your Halloween decor.  If you like them downlod the group in SVG format here.  Just import them into your cutting program and then ungroup them to choose the ones you want to use and size accordingly.  Enjoy!!

Bats!!!

Here are some bats to add to your halloween decor.  If you like them find them here in SVG format. Coming tomorrow. . . . spiders . . .  stay tuned!!

Addams Capitals: A Great Halloween Font

Here is a fun font for your Halloween projects, Addams Capitals, the font from the Addams family TV show.  You can dowload it for free here:  http://www.fontpark.net/en/font/addams-capitals/

50th Birthday

front

back

I made this shirt for a friend's 50th birthday using heat transfer vinyl.  I prefer the Siser Easy weed as I do not have a heat press.  The font on the front is Arial, thickened up a little bit with SCAL.  The font on the back is SF Collegiate, you can download it for free here.  Thanks for looking.

Chandelier with Ravens in Time for Halloween

These spooky type chandeliers with ravens are very in this year.  I thought I would try my hand at putting one together.  You can download the chandelier with the ravens pictured above as one file, or download all the individual pieces and make your own.

Find the three ravens here, here and here.
Chandelier alone here.
Chandelier with ravens here.

Happy creating!!

Subway Art Tile

I made this tile for a friend who just built a new house.  The two spots that are blurred out are their last names.  The other words are their names and things about them.  The tile is 12 x 24.  The font is Eras Bold.  Thanks for looking!!

A Frog

Here is a layered frog file I put together today.  I hopeyou can use it.  Find it in SVG format here.
Thanks for looking!!