Subway Art!

So after trying out my first Silhouette experiment with glass etching , I am a total fan of this machine! For my next project I decided to play with different fonts and some basic layout features.

Next project: subway art!

There are a lot of crafty blogs out there that have examples of their subway art, almost seems like a crafting rite of passage! One blog I follow - tatertots & jello - served as my inspiration to finally try it out myself. Seriously, this gal is Crafty (note the capital "C"), you should check her stuff out and then proceed to be amazed.

For my subway art I decided to go with a quote rather than a holiday-themed one; the seasonal ones I've seen look awesome, but I don't decorate much for holidays. That, plus the fact that I just love this saying made it a sure thing.

Ahem, so the quote I used was some Dr. Seuss-ical wisdom: "Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." Pretty inspiring, right? I could bore you with a summary of how I picked the different fonts, sizes, and orientations...but that would be pretty boring and tedious. Really tedious. Trust me. So just a couple pictures of the process:

Let the Silhouette do the cutting...

Peel the unwanted parts...trust me this takes a lot of time.

Finally after hours (and hours and hours, it felt like), my vinyl decal appeared!

I used Silhouette's transfer paper (love this stuff!) to transfer the vinyl over to an old tin sign freshly painted over. The pumpkin orange paint is the same color I used for my side table a few weeks back.

Final outcome looks pretty spiffy. Added a memo magnet strip from my Christmas haul (thanks Aunt Lisa!) and found some cool orange wall hooks at TJ Maxx for only $2 to finish off my entryway.

Glass + vinyl + chemicals = awesome!

So for Christmas, I got this:

 Only the most awesomest thing EVER. I've seen several blogs demonstrating the wonderful uses for a Silhouette, and now that I am the proud owner of one, it's time for another tier of crafting action!

First project: glass etching!

After the observation of some helpful blogs here and there, it was time for some glass etching. The question becomes...what to etch? Simple answer? I had no clue...but that usually means it's time for some inspiration wandering at Goodwill. Sometimes it's there's some finds and then sometimes there's some finds. This was one of those times.

Two glass pitchers at $4 each...sounded like a perfect starting place for some glass etching. Once I found these guys an idea came up. Every month or so a college friend opens up her house for a girl's weekend - invariably, this weekend always includes a night out at a restaurant catching up on eachother's lives over a pitcher of sangria...so why not make her an awesome pitcher for sangria at home?

With an idea now ready to roll, it's then the picking lettering font and font size, printing it out, and pulling off the unwanted bits...

...then to transfer the vinyl to my glass pitcher. (I used Silhouette's Transfer Paper to help move the vinyl to the pitcher intact...highly recommended!)

Then to apply the glass etching creme. The one suggestion I have on this step is to not be stingy with applying the etching creme. Trust me.

And the final result...is a fancy new Sangria pitcher!

Next project will be up soon, more Silhouette craftiness! :)