Products Used
- 8″ x 8″ shadow box from Michael’s
- Faux sunflowers from Michael’s
- Cricut Holographic Threads Permanent Premium Vinyl in Tangerine
- Con-Tact Magic Cover from Dollar Tree
STOP! Collaborate and Listen…
Can you tell that I really love fall lately? I feel this is only the tip of the fall project iceberg. We already had a beautiful fall leaf and a pumpkin design, now we have this lovely Love Fall shadow box to add to it all.
Collaborating with others is so much fun! A friend recently asked for assistance with a project for a mutual friend’s upcoming birthday. Since she knows I work more in vinyl, she asked if I could cut, weed and apply the vinyl to the front of the frame. I couldn’t pass it up!
She Got It Started
Before my part came up, my friend arranged the sunflowers inside the shadow box. To keep them in place, she used hot glue on the back of each flower to the backing board once she had them arranged how she preferred. She did try a few arrangements before settling on the one pictured to try for the best “random but not really” look. Is there a better way to word that? If you think of it, let me know in the comments below!
Of Course We Had Problems!
Never will I have a project without some kind of issue. Every. Single. Time. Without fail! While this vinyl is beautiful, to be quite honest I probably wouldn’t reach for it again any time soon. While the lettering is quite simple in terms of vinyl cuts, finding the best setting for the vinyl was a pain in the ass. We did a total of five different cuts before it was able to be weeded somewhat successfully.
Originally, we used the already programmed setting in Design Space for the holographic threads vinyl. It did not cut all the way through. So I started increasing the blade pressure with a custom setting (much like I used a custom setting here) and set it to cut twice. It still wasn’t enough pressure. After tweaking the pressure a couple more times, we finally got it to cut through enough to cleanly weed, albeit slowly and with a tad bit of struggle.
Once it was weeded, I used the Con-Tact transfer tape to apply the vinyl to the front of the shadow box…and then realized that I didn’t check where the top of the frame was. Yep, your girl here applied the vinyl sideways! Why? Because I am apparently an avant-garde genius who doesn’t require things to hang rightsize up. LOL Oh well, the end result still looks great and can stand upright on a shelf or wherever the recipient chooses to place it.
