Products Used
- TeckWrap permanent adhesive vinyl – Marigold, orange, red-orange, red, brown
- Con-Tact Magic Cover from Dollar Tree
Motivation and Getting Started
Each day when browsing IG, TikTok, and FB for inspiration, I see such talented artists doing layered paper designs that create scenes or objects. They’re often perfectly placed in shadow boxes with foam squares creating depth between layers. Designs like that always fully capture my attention. While I do work with paper, it’s more often for creating cards, envelopes, etc. Ya know, functional pieces to share with others, not something to frame and put on glorious display.
I began looking through designs in Cricut’s Design Space, Etsy, FB groups, etc. to find a layered design that I felt would translate well into vinyl…because let’s face it, I’m going to use vinyl. I settled on the above pictured fall leaf design in Design Space. Since the design had five separate layers, I chose five fall-like colors and set to work.
Creating My Masterpiece…At least I see it as one
Cut, cut, cut, cut, and cut…hard part is done! Just kidding! That’s the easy part. The cutting always ends up getting cut from process videos because it’s always the same. Vinyl goes in, wiggles around a bit, vinyl is spit out. I will fully admit that after cutting the pieces, I sat on it for a couple days before setting to work. Once I made time to actually set to work, it was completed during a weekly Zoom call with friends.
Weeding was pretty easy for these since only three layers that had any kind of intricacies. Layering was a bit more difficult given the size and number of layers. As much layering as I have done by this point, This piece was one of the largest and had the most layers directly on top of one another. The edges need to be as close as possible all the way around to look decent. While the final product is not perfect, I feel like it is close enough to pass. Once again the parchment paper came into play to help get the job done.
Showing Off
I think it’s safe to assume this piece was one to be proud of and I certainly am! The leaf feels thick, but sturdy. I do wish there were fewer bubbles in the top most brown layer, but those are easily removed with a squeegee or a precise pin prick. This piece will make a great fall decor piece once it’s been adhered to a decorated canvas or frame. At the moment I am torn between the two. I’ll end up making a decision one day…probably in winter. LOL!!!
