Arrows in the Form of Vinyl

Hey, Peeps. Here's just a quick post today about my vinyl. I have been wanting to put something rather dramatic in my living room, so I cut one of my big arrow designs in vinyl and put it up today. I absolutely love it. It makes a statement (perhaps that I'm bold enough to put something this big on my wall), but when I'm tired of it, I can take it down or replace it with something else. I LOVE it when that happens!

And here's one of my staged photos for my Etsy shop. This is in my dining room, and I might actually leave them up. After all, it IS my home. ;)

Thanks again for stopping in! Fondly, Tami

Custom Subway Art

Here's yet another piece of subway art. Sorry if I'm boring you Froggers, but I'm having so much fun with this art form. This was a custom piece for my daughter's friend who just set up house and is getting married this summer. I wanted to make a piece that was special to her and her fiance, so I told her I'd make her one (knowing that she likes them, of course), and asked what she would like me to put on it. She has a wonderful steampunk theme, so I had to keep that in mind.

I thought Thorn would be appropriate, since that will be her new last name, and it was fitting for the theme.

This piece was quite challenging for me because of the size, but like previous projects, I learned along the way and have a much better idea how to pull it all together for the next one.

I was so tickled with this. I LOVE making custom pieces!
I promise that the next post will be about something else. 
Fondly, Tami
I'm linking to:
Knick of Time Interiors

More Subway Art- Fun With Fonts

Hey, Froggers. I can't believe it's been almost a month since I've posted! Believe me, a LOT has happened. We had a pretty huge medical scare, but all is good, and I'm incredibly thankful that it was the best possible outcome instead of a death sentence. And trust me, I'm not being melodramatic. Whew!

So, after all that, I managed to gather up my crafting strength and create a few more things. I've been using my Black Cat Cougar, and boy, is it ever nice.

My friend, Kate, at the Cozy Crop House, wanted me to make a subway art sign to put up for sale at her scrapbooking retreat. And if that wasn't fun enough, you can see yours truly here. The local news did a spot and they put it up on Youtube. I always did like attention, so this was perfect! I'm the one in the red sweater. The funny thing is that I'm not really working on anything in the video. I'm just shuffling things around. Ha!

There's a local gentleman, who I met at a yard sale, who was selling un-finished, un-drilled cabinet doors. I was thrilled. AND, he said he had a lot more back at his shop. Can you say, "PAYDIRT"? I went and bought several, and plan to go back again. And, don't ask me for his number. I won't give it to you. ;)

I've wanted to do a Penn State piece, and I had no idea what to put on it. However, I asked my good friends, Buzz and Kim, who are PS graduates. Interestingly enough, I looked up some things on the internet, and found out that PS is quite picky about what you can use. You can't use Penn State, Blue Band, their lion, of course, Nittany Lion, or the paw (mine below is a generic paw, not the official logo). In keeping with not wanting to violate copyrights, I didn't use them.

A few months ago, I bought a package of several hundred fonts that were available for commercial use. I so enjoy trying to match the word with the font. I love the grilled stickies font. I believe it was originally intended for Halloween use, but I think it fits in quite well here.

I like the Lion font.

More close-ups:

Let's just say that I'm having way too much fun.
If you want to know how I did these, just check my tutorial here .
Here's to happy crafting!
Fondly, Tami
I'm linking to:
Beyond the Picket Fence
No Minimalist Here
The Trendy Treehouse 
DIY By Design 
Beneath My Heart

Subway Art How-To

Hey, Froggers. I've been so busy crafting I almost can't stand myself! Well, at least I think HubbyDoc can't stand me.
I've been doing subway art for about 6 months now, and I've come up with a few techniques that I think might just help all of you who have struggled with spacing, cursed at transfer tape, and just generally stayed away from it for fear that it just wouldn't look good.
Well, fear not. I believe I have some solutions.
Now, I do apologize if I'm stepping on anyone's foot by taking credit for these "techniques". I truly have never seen anything like this on any blogs, so if there is, please let me know.
First, you make your design on your design program (Sure Cuts a Lot, Make the Cut, or any other programs out there). Once you have oodged and finagled and scrunched everything into place on your virtual mat, group all of your images to make them one, and center your image on your virtual mat- both horizontally and vertically. This is extremely important.

If your design has many components, which is kinda what subway art is all about, to take the "negative pieces" (the pieces that are going to be thrown out), it's easier to compartmentalize them. This means, take an exacto knife and cut around the words or symbols in sections. That way, you don't have to pull the discarded piece off all at once, which is very hard to do.

Here's another pic with some of the negative vinyl already taken off. You can see the sections cut away. When you're using your exacto knife, be careful not to cut through the white backing.

After you've taken off all of your unusable vinyl and the innerds of the letters (like the inside of the A and E, etc.), you're ready to place your transfet tape on top. I usually measure mine out using the grids on the back. I try to make a piece the same size as the vinyl design so as not to waste anything (I'm terribly cheap frugal. I'm so cheap frugal, that I sometimes use clear contact paper instead of transfer paper. Today, I didn't have a piece of transfer paper big enough, so I used the contact paper. I'm finding that I actually like that better anyway.

Once I place the contact paper on top, I trim all of the edges. Then I burnish all of the design to encourage it to stick to the transfer paper once I lift the design off.

Now, here's where I forgot to take a picture. Ugh. Just use your imagination.
Pretend I've drawn a grid on the 12 inch mark and the 6 inch mark since I used a 12x24 inch mat (remember that everything is centered horizontally and vertically?). So, there's a crosshair mark on the transfer tape. This is done before I take the vinyl (still on its backing) with the transfer tape off of the mat. This is KEY, folks!



Now, make a grid on your board (or whatever you're putting your subway art onto), making vertical and horizontal lines to mark the exact center.

Now, to backtrack just a little, you will have already painted your board whatever color you want your letters or designs to be. I wanted mine to be red, so my board was already painted before I marked the center.

Now, you're going to remove your designs, with the transfer paper and vinyl backing, from your mat.



Here, you can see the exact center that I drew, using the lines on the mat before I took everything off. Now, cut your design in sections with scissors. Here's another tip- don't cut your sections in a straight line. Make the lines squiggly, with notches in them. You'll see later why it's helpful.
I cut mine in small enough sections that it's easy to peel off the transfer tape with letters. If you make your sections too big, it gets too unruly.
Here's another important tip. When you cut your sections, just make sure that one of the sections has the cross from the crosshairs. This way, you can line it up on your vertical line as well as your horizontal line.
Here are the sections. You can see that the only straight lines are the edges.

Once the sections are all cut, take the section with the center lines, and peel off the letters using the transfer tape. I often have to use a spatula to coax the letters off. This can be tedious, and I haven't found a better way, so if anyone knows of one, please LMK!!!

Line up your center piece on the center grids and burnish. I usually just use my fingers and go over the letters. If you put the center piece on first, everything else will line up perfectly.

Since you've made your edges uneven, it's now easy to line up the rest of your pieces. I often have to refer to my design on my computer, but that's my problem.

Here, I added the Christmas word, which was easy since I have the grid marks to line up. Finish placing all of your sections on the board, lining them up with the previous section.
Now, pull your transfer tape off. I like to make sure my letters are burnished a little more and then I pull off the tape at a hard angle. This keeps the letters from pulling up off of the board.

And here's the final design before the next coat of paint, which I'll show you the next time.

I hope this is useful, and as always, feel free to leave comments!
Fondly, Tami
I'm linking to the following:
Embellishing Life with Handmade Goodness
Sumo's Sweet Stuff
DIY Showoff  Parade
Fingerprints on the Fridge
Finding Faboulos for Less
Remodelaholic
The Shabby Nest
Sisters of the Wild West 
French Country Cottage 
The 36th Avenue 
My 1929  Charmer Blog
The Southern Institute 
The Trendy Treehouse 
I Heart Naptime
Beyond the Picket Fence
No Minimalist Here 
House of Hepworths 
Under the Table and Dreaming

Yard Sale Find, Vinyl, and a Little Bit of Paint

Yes, I've been busy, Froggers. On the way to help  my in-laws move, I happened upon a yard sale with *furniture*. You see, I've been really wanting to work on refurbishing furniture for years. However, my schedule and list of other crafts did not allow. Well, I've made the commitment, Peeps! A chest of drawers was calling out to me from the lawn, half encrusted with crap, aka wonderful finds. I screeched my wheels came to a gentle stop and got out to peruse the items. I was excited to see that the chest of drawers was from a non-smoking home and was quite inexpensive. It didn't look like it needed a ton of work, so I bought it. Keep in mind that I was on my way to help move my in-laws and now my trunk was full of my own furniture that needed to be moved. Duh. Oh, well. Fortunately, they had rented a large trailer that required two trips anyway.

You would think after all the projects that I've posted, that I would have gotten a complete before pic, but no, I haven't learned.
Now, I must add that I did see something like this in Blogland, so I can't claim this as an original idea, although I don't know if the Anonymous Blogger (sorry- I'd SO link to you if I could remember who you were) painted the knobs or not. I'll pretend like I'm on the witness stand and say, "I don't recall," which means that I'll take full credit for that part if I want to.

Here are some pics of the drawers:

I'm sorry, but I don't consider this "chippy goodness".

I'm sure this piece of furniture belonged to a girl, since it appeared that it was "heavily decorated" at some point:

Never mind the Goo Gone. I just took my trusty palm sander to these babes. This stuff needed to be vaporized.

Here is my helper who stayed by my side the entire time:

Here's a hint of what I used:

Shock of all shocks! Chalk Paint??? Like, nobody else is using this in Blogland. I do have to admit that I LOVE this stuff. But, 'nuff said. On to the project.

I painted the center front panel of each drawer in Old White and applied some vinyl letters, cut with my trusty Cricut and Sure Cuts a Lot program. Gotta love those two together! And, I'm not forgetting to thank Mrs. Barford, by middle school French teacher, whose husband also taught French, heard my test tape at home, and thought I was a native speaker (had to throw that in for bragging purposes).

After applying the vinyl letters, I painted over them with Paris Grey. Then, I lifted the vinyl off of the dried paint, to reveal the loveliness underneath. I painted the body in Old White. A coat of oak Briwax and clear Briwax later, this is what I came up with:

I'm kind of tickled with it.
Fondly, Tami


June 28 postscript- I found the link of the original right here. Yea. I really do like to give credit to the original creative blogger!
And, I'm linking to:
Under the Table and Dreaming
I Heart Naptime
Sisters of the Wild West 
Miss Mustard Seed