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Super Simple Etching and a Free Vector

As promised, here is my finished glass etching project. I think it turned out pretty cute for my first try.

This project was super simple. First I drew up the pattern in Inkscape. (I won’t include the pattern here because it is very similar to the pattern on the dishes I purchased and I don’t want to take a chance of copyright infringement.) I then imported the pattern into my Silhouette software and traced it. Next, I used my little Craft Robo to make a stencil out of vinyl. I used Cricut wall vinyl but I’m sure contact paper would work as well.

I attended a class for this project but already had the vinyl placed on the dish before arriving at the class. So all I had to do was apply the etching cream. The other people attending the class were painstakingly cutting their patterns out with X-acto knives! Wow, that looked like a big job to me! The instructor had us use rubber gloves so that we just applied the cream with our fingers. I left the etching cream on for about 5 minutes and then rinsed it off. Then I simply peeled off the vinyl to reveal the etching. That’s all there is too it!

I had intended to take my camera to the class so I could take pictures of the project. However, I was running late and forgot to take it. But honestly, this project was so easy that I don’t think the pictures are necessary.

Just for fun, I drew up a box of  little glass dessert dishes. If you’d like the vector, help yourself. You can do what you want with it…. with the exception of course, of selling the file. Happy drawing!

Laurianne

Tip Junkie handmade projects

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Trying Something New…. Glass Etching

My hubby’s recent birthday qualified us for one of those “senior” parks. You know…. the kind where you can park your RV for the winter and act like you’re a kid at summer camp. There are all kinds of activities here…. swimming, sewing, wood shop, pool, dancing….. well you get the idea. In spite of the fact that I feel like we are WAY too young to be here, we are really having a good time.

Since I am off work for a few weeks, I thought I’d take one of the craft classes offered here. The class I’m going to will teach us how to etch on glass. Even though there are lots of great tutorials online for this and it doesn’t look too difficult, I thought taking the class would inspire me to get started. I just had to figure out what to try for my first project.

Off to Walmart I went to find something glass to etch. I found some cute little stemmed dessert dishes made by Anchor Hocking. I think I paid about $1.80 a piece for them, so if I mess up it won’t be a disaster.

I looked through my Inkscape files to see if I had something there that would look cute on them. I also checked out the Silhouette store and found some darling files there. In the end though, I decided it would be nice to make them match my dishes that I have here in the RV. They have a cute flower border which will be perfect on my glassware. Since it is such a simple design, it was a breeze to draw it up in Inkscape. So here is a little sketch of my idea…. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Happy drawing!

Laurianne

 

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Rustic Place Cards

With the holidays rapidly approaching, and so much to do, I felt truly blessed to have 3 days in a row at home. Best of all, I’ve had a chance to play around with my new Silhouette Cameo. Oh how I love this new toy! (More about my Cameo in a future post.)

Today I worked at designing and cutting some place cards. I am planning to have a dinner party with several couples and wanted something to put at each place that looked seasonal and rustic. I didn’t want anything too “Christmasy” since the dinner is just a couple of days after Thanksgiving.

The first one you see here I created in the Silhouette Studio software that comes standard with the cutter. I did not draw the bird. The pattern comes from a Martha Stewart Bird Mobile and is a PDF, so I used the Windows 7 clip feature to capture and save it as a JPG. I then opened it in Silhouette Studio and traced it.

For the next place card I used Inkscape to draw the pinecones. I’m sure they could have been done in the Silhouette program, but I am more comfortable with Inkscape for anything with that much detail. As you can see I made two layers of this card. The underlayer is just slightly bigger and doesn’t have the cutouts. I liked the effect that it gave me.

I’m not sure I am completely satisfied with these… I may have to keep tweaking them. Perhaps I’ll combine the two because I like the bird, but also like the layers. Layering meant there was nothing to print so I didn’t have to worry about using the registration marks to line things up for a “print and cut”. I’ll try to post if I come up with a new idea.

Happy drawing.

Laurianne

 

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Vinyl Wall Art…. I Hope…

photo of flowers against the ocean

I recently took this picture while traveling along the Pacific coast. I like the color of the water and the way the dried flowers are silhouetted against it. I love stuff like that! Anyway, it inspired me to try something I’ve been wanting to do for a while but haven’t gotten around to.

Today I’m designing some wall art by tracing the flowers in the picture using the Inkscape pen tool.  I’ll have to modify it some because the flowers are too dainty for cutting. I’m not sure how thin I can cut the vinyl with my Craft Robo without it tearing or stretching when I apply it to the wall. I’ve posted this question on the Inscape Cutting Design forum. I’ll bet someone there will be able to give me some tips as I go along with the project.

I can’t wait to see how this turns out!

Oh… by the way… for those of you that have personal cutting machines, La.La.Studio has some really nice free downloads right now.  You might want to take a look.

Happy drawing!

Laurianne