Vinyl Tutorial & {Giveaway}

I am excited to share this easy vinyl tutorial with you today but I am even more excited that one of you has a chance to win a shop credit to my favorite vinyl supplier, Expressions Vinyl!! 

Before we get into the tutorial I know what you really want to see, my stock pile of vinyl!

 (you never know what color you are going to want)

 (gotta keep the storage stylish or spirited in this case)

 (this one is t-shirt vinyl or heat transfer)

 (these are my scrap drawers)

(and this is my BFF - my 5 yard roll of outdoor while vinyl - which happens to be on sale until 5/28 with the code ROLLING12)
Ok, so enough with my vinyl hoarding photos - let's get on with the tutorial and giveaway!
I want to show you how I made this adorable frame!

First, you will need a 12x12 frame with a small opening (I picked this one up at Walmart) that you've painted the color of your choice.Second, you will need to open up a new tab in Silhouette Studio and change the dimensions of the page to match your frame dimensions - makes it a whole lot easier to understand the scale.

 The font I am showing here is called Cheri but it's slightly different than the one on the frame which I believe is called Tina's Baby Shower.

 Always start your cursor at the very edge of the page when typing, and use a small font. The easy of this project is in letting the software adjust the size of your font for you to match the width you have chosen for your words. Here I picked 11" as my width.

Always use the bottom right hand corner to pull your words to the desired width, this will automatically size you font so that your phrase fits on the line within the dimensions that you want.

 I picked to transfer my phrases in 2 groups, to use less transfer paper mostly, but you can do it all as one. Select all of the lines you want to be aligned by holding down the shift key and selected them one at a time anad then go to Objects>Align>Align Center.

 After you have all your lines where you want them load your vinyl into your machine, select the Silhouette Vinyl from the Cut Settings and then adjust the speed down to around a 5 since letters are a more detailed cut than a shape so I like to go slower. On my machine I have found that a blade depth of 2 is PERFECT for cutting vinyl! Once the cutting is done weed your vinyl and transfer it onto your frame using transfer tape so everything stays aligned just as you cut it out. You can put a clear coat over  your vinyl or you can just leave it as is!

Now for the REALLY fun part! Expressions Vinyl wants to give one of YOU a $25 shop credit so that you can buy some vinyl, too!




To enter go visit Expressions Vinyl and come back and tell me your top 3 colors you would love to buy with your winnings.
For extra entries (please leave a separate comment for each):

1. Like Expressions Vinyl on Facebook
2. Sign up for their Special Offers e-mail List (it's on the left sidebar of their shop)
3. Follow Expressions Vinyl on Pinterest 

It's that simple!!

The giveaway will end Saturday, May 26th at 8pm (eastern daylight time).

You will have 48 hours to contact me to claim your prize.

Must be 18 years or older.

linking up: tatertots & jello