The very first thing I used my Cricut Explore Air 2 for (and the primary reason I got it) was to create canvases with fun quotes on them to decorate my office and give as gifts to my friends. My best friend, Dawn, had gotten a Cricut a couple of years ago and when I explained to her what I wanted to do she told me about the Cricut. For the first two canvases, I set the type in PowerPoint and sent the file to her. She then cut the vinyl and FedEx'd it to me. I painted the canvases and applied the vinyl using contact paper. Here are the first two that Dawn and I did together:
My mind was blown when I actually purchased the machine and realized Design Space was very similar to PhotoShop and InDesign --- ideas started racing through my head! Here is the first quote canvas I did on my own in Design Space:
Below are various canvases I have made to date. As I said in my Easter Mantel post, I have found that the vinyl sometimes doesn't adhere very well to the painted canvas. With my Peter Cottontail canvas, I switched to creating a stencil out of the vinyl and painting on top of the canvas. This process worked much better.
I made this small canvas for my friend Helen. She wanted something to remind her to relax and she loves the ocean. I painted the canvas with various blues to look like the ocean and then added this simple word in vinyl: Breathe.
I love Christmas and I still believe in Santa - of course. I found this fun quote while combing the Internet and I had seen signs similar to this one. I spend about an hour searching fonts and finally decided on the two that I used: Mahogany Script Std Regular (available in Design Space) and Navidad (downloaded from FontSpace). I had downloaded the Santa and sleigh image from the Internet for a prior project and just reused it here.
I had to do several layers of the red paint for it not to look pink. Also, this is the first canvas where I noticed the vinyl not adhering to the painted canvas in areas. There was one section of the rein that I had to keep smoothing down throughout the holidays. We placed it above the mantel throughout Christmas.
It's a Wonderful Life is my favorite movie of all time. Skimming through Christmas SVG files that could be purchased, I found this bell with Clarence's famous quote. It can be purchased on Etsy here.
I cut the bell out of gold glitter vinyl and I hot glued silk holly leaves and berries to the top of the bell to give it a little more dimension.
I was pleased with the end product and made a second one for my boyfriend's mother.
During the aforementioned session of skimming through SVG files for purchase, I also found this very cool "night before Christmas" file. The download can be purchased here on Etsy. I made this for my mother for her Christmas gift. I will admit it was a bit tricky with all the copy and the length of the piece. Due to the change I made to the size of the file, I did have to ungroup all the pieces in Design Space and then regrouped each line. Doing it that way gave me more flexibility for resizing and spacing. When I cut the vinyl and it came time to place it on the canvas, I placed it in sections so that the contact paper was more manageable.
It's hard to tell in the picture, but this turned out really pretty. I used a 12x24 Linen Collection Artist Canvas from Hobby Lobby. I did not paint or coat it with anything - I just stuck the vinyl directly onto the canvas. Preparing for this project, I did buy the less expensive vinyl available at Hobby Lobby and found it very difficult to work with - it moved around a lot on the backing. So, I scraped my first cut and went to JoAnn and bought Cricut vinyl. In trying to save a little money, I wasted some instead...however, I did learn a lesson.
I perused the Internet and Pinterest on and off for a month or so looking for ideas for quotes about "home" to make a canvas for our mudroom. My thoughts always kept coming back to Dorothy and I really wanted to create something with her red shoes. I had thoughts of actually painting a yellow brick road as the background, but I had several other projects going on at the time and that would consume more time than I had. So, I kept it simple.
I painted the canvas in an off white and I used fonts available on Design Space. I welded them so I do not remember what the fonts actually were, but there are four them used. I got Dorothy's shoes from Etsy and cut them out of Cricut crimson red glitter vinyl.
I eat very low carb so needless to say we eat a lot of bacon in this house. I had seen a similar sign on Pinterest and decided I could figure out how to make one on my own. I used a font available in Design Space and a pig silhouette that I uploaded from the Internet. Also, I did paint the canvas first with the same off-white paint I used on Dorothy's shoes.
This was the canvas that really ended using the vinyl for me. That pig was so bubbly and would never fully stick. So, I ended up painting the pig and the "bacon" on his belly by hand. I left the "what's shakin'" as vinyl.
My mind was blown when I actually purchased the machine and realized Design Space was very similar to PhotoShop and InDesign --- ideas started racing through my head! Here is the first quote canvas I did on my own in Design Space:
Below are various canvases I have made to date. As I said in my Easter Mantel post, I have found that the vinyl sometimes doesn't adhere very well to the painted canvas. With my Peter Cottontail canvas, I switched to creating a stencil out of the vinyl and painting on top of the canvas. This process worked much better.
I had to do several layers of the red paint for it not to look pink. Also, this is the first canvas where I noticed the vinyl not adhering to the painted canvas in areas. There was one section of the rein that I had to keep smoothing down throughout the holidays. We placed it above the mantel throughout Christmas.
I cut the bell out of gold glitter vinyl and I hot glued silk holly leaves and berries to the top of the bell to give it a little more dimension.
I was pleased with the end product and made a second one for my boyfriend's mother.
It's hard to tell in the picture, but this turned out really pretty. I used a 12x24 Linen Collection Artist Canvas from Hobby Lobby. I did not paint or coat it with anything - I just stuck the vinyl directly onto the canvas. Preparing for this project, I did buy the less expensive vinyl available at Hobby Lobby and found it very difficult to work with - it moved around a lot on the backing. So, I scraped my first cut and went to JoAnn and bought Cricut vinyl. In trying to save a little money, I wasted some instead...however, I did learn a lesson.
I painted the canvas in an off white and I used fonts available on Design Space. I welded them so I do not remember what the fonts actually were, but there are four them used. I got Dorothy's shoes from Etsy and cut them out of Cricut crimson red glitter vinyl.
This was the canvas that really ended using the vinyl for me. That pig was so bubbly and would never fully stick. So, I ended up painting the pig and the "bacon" on his belly by hand. I left the "what's shakin'" as vinyl.
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