Cheerios and Laundry: Painting Letters: Projectors, Cricuts, and Silhouettes OH MY!

Years ago I found an old warehouse on Craigslist. I was on the search for one of the original overhead projectors that were used in the classroom with transparencies. I was pretty pumped as I walked out of that place with my "new" $20 projector. Oh the crafty stuff I could do!

Remember these guys?

I spent time designing through Pages (yes I'm a Mac kind of girl), printing on transparencies (hoping they were sized right), and then plopping that big machine on my dining room table often times only to find out that it wasn't sized right to the canvas and I would need to start over again. However, through some trial and error I would get it right and really for $20 how can you go wrong? I used it mostly for letter work and while the edges aren't always perfectly crisp I also kind of liked it that way too!

As the years passed I heard rumors of a machine called the Cricut. I found a way, despite the price tag, and made it happen. I used it a little at first, but then I got pregnant and honestly just didn't have the money. The original Cricut that I had required multiple cartridges for designs and fonts. This newly "retired" teacher and stay at home Mom was not exactly in the place to buy dozens of cartridges. So, the Cricut sat lonely, upstairs, in an office that was rarely used. When Bumble was one we had a garage sale and I sold the Cricut, which was hard! It was one of those items that in my head I would always get back to, but in reality I knew I never would.

In between the Cricut and Silhouette I tried this method of painting letters onto canvas. It's a nice way to transfer them over. Just be sure to reverse (mirror) your letters before trying out this one.

Fast forward to now and hearing about the Silhouette Cameo. The main thing that stood out to me with both the new Cricut and Silhouette is that you could hook it up to your computer, no cartridges needed, and use all of the fonts and designs you already had! This was HUGE and my brain was spinning with what I could dream up. Christmas rolled around and I used my Christmas money to buy this bundle on Amazon.

I am by no means a pro with this thing yet, but I am really enjoying it! There is so much you can do with it and it makes designing and painting letters way easier. I wanted to try out a few things when I first received it so I have used the regular vinyl, glitter heat transfer vinyl, and just the vinyl as a stencil to paint letters and images. The Silhouette software is super user friendly and makes the process a breeze.

So far here are 3 of my top tips (from figuring it out the hard way):

1. All of the settings in the guide may not be just perfect for your particular Silhouette. I always do a test cut first to make sure it is cutting appropriately. I messed up a lot of expensive vinyl by not doing this in the beginning!

2. Speaking of expensive vinyl, if you are just using the vinyl as a stencil that you will just pull off your project and throw away may I suggest buying a cheap roll of contact paper from Wal-Mart? It works wonderfully for that. I have had issues pulling it off because it's not quite as sticky as the vinyl, but if you have patience it's a much cheaper option.

3. When it comes to painting the letters on, make sure that your vinyl or contact paper is firmly in place. The paint WILL bleed underneath and it is such a bummer when you pull it off only to reveal runny letters. A solution to letters bleeding that I found while searching is to use Mod Podge! Here is a tutorial on how to use it when doing your letters from Laura at The Turquoise Home. Courtney from A Diamond in the Stuff has a similar tutorial as well. Most tutorials say to use only matte Mod Podge. I used glossy (because that's all I had) and it turned out great.

For Valentine's Day I wanted to make something special for the hubs. We both love the song "A Sunday Kind of Love" by Etta James. If you don't know it you should. So I went to Lowe's, picked out my board, brought it home to my miter saw, and made my cuts. As my stain dried I made my design with the Silhouette software.

Once I was ready I sent my project to be cut. After weeding out what I didn't want to use I placed the transfer paper on top of my vinyl.

Then, I carefully removed the back of the vinyl, placed it on my piece of wood (as straight as possible), and then carefully removed the front piece of transfer paper. This leaves just the vinyl remaining on the wood board.

From here (sorry no pictures) I painted my modge podge on each letter to prevent the paint from bleeding. The only issue I had once I lifted the vinyl was with some of the fonts I chose. They were soooooo thin that when I lifted the vinyl it lifted the paint with it! Oops! I was able to touch it up by hand so problem solved.