Challenge COMPLETED! | Week 52 | #52wonderfilledweeks


O Cameo! O Cameo! How easy you make my projects!!!

It's week 52...FIFTY TWO!!! There are not enough exclamation points to express how freaking proud I am of myself.  I made it.  I created something every week this year, took photos and posted each about it.  I was certain I would stop at the end of this year but I think I may, MAY, continue in the new year.  I have haven't actually decided yet...what I do know is that I will obviously keep creating (I still have a list of projects that I never got to this year) and will post when I do...but I'll figure out the details later. A round up of projects and my reflections on what I learned to come!

This week was all about my Cameo again.  I took a well deserved break after our amazing Coco party but I needed to make the "Something to wear" for Bubba for Christmas so I got it back out.  We tried (and successfully stuck to) the "Something they want, Something they need, Something to wear and Something to read" for Christmas this year.  It was brilliant.  Highly recommend.  For P's something to wear I made her a mini, zippered pocket, infinity scarf and Bubba got a new shirt with a design we've wanted to do for him for a while.  We call him "Duke the Destroyer" because, well, he destroys almost everything...he's in perpetual motion...like taking photos for this week's post was a real pain in my you know what.

I made Bubba a Patterns for Pirates (P4P) Jolly Roger Raglan and added in HTV the "Conan the Destroyer" font.  I downloaded the font from DaFont and tweaked it a bit.  I love how it turned out and secretly love that the shirt ended up roomy because he will be able to wear it longer!









Could he get any cuter??

Next up was suppose to be a quick project for my Mom, KT of KTBugg Quilting.  She's in town for the holidays and a few weeks ago called to ask if I thought we would be able to design and cut some vinyl decals for Matilda....Matilda is her Gammill, long arm quilting machine.  I told her sure and she went out and bought all sorts of vinyl.  When we started this project we were just going to cut a few decals...but there was a learning curve with the holographic vinyl she picked up and then they all turned out so good we just kept adding things to cut.  

Most of the large decals are quilting patterns that I traced in Silhouette Studio and then cut.  The first two cuts of the holographic vinyl was sort of a fail.  I tried the default setting on my Cameo and it basically just scored the vinyl and if you weren't careful when weeding you would tear things very very easily.  I ended up changing my settings from the default settings to a depth of 2, speed of 5, force of 16 and pass of 1.  That totally worked and made weeding so much more endurable.  A few other tips and tricks.  We were using the Cricut brand holographic vinyl.  We also noticed that the rolled vinyl tended to curl and the closer to the inside of the roll the worse it was.  When we laid it flat I noticed (on both rolls we worked with) a long bubble in the vinyl.  I was able to work the air out with my burnishing tool but make sure you cover your vinyl with something first.  I didn't on the red vinyl and I feel like I totally scratched up the front of the vinyl.  For the blue I got smart and just laid the cutting mat OVER the sheet and worked the air out and no bubble!!










 After we got the settings to work for us, not against, we weeded all the decals, then trimmed and added transfer tape (contact paper) to the front.  I wanted my Mom to be able to go home and apply. 


We got a pretty good system going and Mom is now thinking of ordering her own machine, HA! After the long arm decals came out so well we started talking about things she could put on her hockey gear.  A lifelong Snoopy fan we found this image online and I had it traced and the first decal cut in mere minutes.  The first one I did had all the little squiggles and parts and pieces.  I wanted to do this right so I cut the image from both black and white vinyl and then weeded them in opposite ways.  This would totally work if it weren't for the tiny pieces.  


I wish I had been thinking more clearly and I would have omitted the tiny parts on the white cut and just laid the black overlay over it.  I think they came out okay...overall but I know better for the next time.



 I also cut my own "registration" marks.  The squares you see in the corners to help me line up the black layer over the white.  I only really used the squares on the diagonal from each other, so the four, one in each corner, was overkill.



The white was so hard to weed.  I actually couldn't include a picture of it not weeded because it just looked like a normal piece of paper.



With the black and white sets weeded I lined the black layer up over the white, removed the squares and trimmed up the stickers.


A tip I have discovered...it's easier to peel the backing paper off like I am in the above picture when transferring to transfer tape.


I just wanted to show you how cool the sticker came out...this is the back side but you get the idea.



Another look at the decal.


The first trace I included everything (left) but it was hard to weed and line up so I took out lots of the little pieces (right).  I wish I had cleaned it up a little more in addition to making his body just solid white and laying the black layer over rather than having to line up all the little cuts and weeded pieces.  We kept joking around that I was doing surgery.  I am now very adept with my dental tools! HA!


In the end we created, cut, weeded, and added transfer tape to SEVENTY FOUR vinyl decals...holy moly.  Mom is set ( I hope!) and I can't wait to see how Matilda looks in her new flair.  

And with that I can officially say: 2018 #52wonderfillweeks challenge COMPLETED!!!!



Comments

  1. Mom aka Katy at KtBugg QuiltinggDecember 30, 2018 at 10:20 AM

    Congratulations on your 52 Winderfilled weeks. And thanks for the decals.

    ReplyDelete

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