Vinyl on Tile ~ Gift for a Friend

Hi.  Lori here from ScrappinMyStressAway with a great last minute Holiday gift you can make for a friend or family member.  I am delighted to be a Guest Designer for my friend Shawn today.  I use her MyCutSearch website all the time to find images and fonts on my cricut cartridges.  It is much better than the search on my Gypsy ~ and those who know me know my Gypsy is pretty much attached to my wrist!!!

I saw something similar on Pinterest on a glass block and decided to modify it for my good friend.  I used a lot of cartridges to create this look:

Smile is from Hello Kitty Font at 1.24 inches
Friends and Dream are from Hannah Montana at 1.24 and 1.31 inches
Faith is from Home Accents at 2.10 inches
Home is also from Home Accents at 1.78 inches
Journey is from Nate's ABCs at 1.46 inches rotated 90 degrees
Inspire is from Home Accents at 1.92 inches
Family is from Gypsy Wanderings at 2.38 inches
Love is from Home Accents at 4.58 inches
Forever is from Hello Kitty Font at 1.54 inches rotated at -90 degrees
Miller is welded from Quarter Note at 2.62 inches
I hid the dot on the i and replaced it with a heart from George at .45 inches

These measurements were a trial and error on size and font and can easily be switched with other fonts and sizes and words that are meaningful to you!

 I cut this out from gold vinyl.  When cutting vinyl, I set my Expression on 3, 3 & 3 (pressure, speed and blade depth) to cut through just the vinyl not the paper backing.  This is called a kiss cut.  When weeding away the extra pieces of vinyl, it is helpful to roll it so the extra vinyl does not stick to your project.  Be careful of the dots from the i's as they sometimes like to get weeded away!

I use my dental tool to weed out the inner cuts.

 I use clear contact paper as my transfer tape.  It is super sticky, so I de-stick it a bit with my jeans.

 I smooth the clear contact paper over my vinyl and burnish it with my scraper.

 Starting at one corner, I carefully peel up the contact paper.  If part of the vinyl stays behind, I put the contact paper back down and burnish some more.  Vinyl is very forgiving!!

 Once the vinyl all on the contact paper, I place it over a 12x12 tile I purchased at Lowe's for around $1.  I burnish it again and carefully peel up the contact paper.

All this tile needs is an easel and then it can be displayed on a shelf, table or counter.  I saved my project in my Gypsy so I can easily change the name or some of the words to suit another friend (or even me)!!  If you get brave, you can even use different colors of vinyl!!!

Thanks so much Shawn for having me over today to play!!!  I hope you all have a wonderful Holiday Season and Happy 2012!!!