Relax with Coffee and Vinyl

One past time I have that I find extremely relaxing and keeps my hands as well as my mind busy is creating vinyl pieces.

I love the whole process of thinking of a design and what I could use it for, than cleaning the image up in the Cricut app.

After this I simply feed it through the Cricut machine and watch as it cuts the vinyl perfectly. Once finished, I release it from the Cricut and set it under a bright light.

This is my favourite part, the weeding. Weeding is where you use a small pick tool to remove all the negative vinyl, or pieces of vinyl you won’t be using.

This part is the most relaxing and satisfying. You start with what looks like a sheet of vinyl and slowly the picture becomes more clear. Like a paint by numbers.

Here I made a few pieces that turned out great with this type of vinyl.

Next I placed them on the items I wanted to decorate.

The ideas of what you can do are endless, anywhere from using the pen in the Cricut to design drawings for your children to draw, and all the way to designing slogans or images to place on clothing.

So far some of the things I have created Vinyl pieces for are:

• T-shirts and onesies

• Flower Pots

• Notebooks and music books

• Mirrors

• Cars

• Window decals

• Signs to hang

• My Bodies Rebuilt boxes

• My Bodies Rebuilt shakers

• Glasses

• Hats

• My Bodies Rebuilt meal prep bags

As you can see the possibilities are wide and varied. A few other things that the Cricut does is cut card stock so you can make cards or paper flowers. Engrave metal is something the more recently released Cricut do. They can cut balsa wood and even fabrics for sewing.

They recently just brought out a Cricut Maker 3 and it looks amazing! In saying that though, I only have the Cricut Explore Air 2 and it is still great for so many things.

My favourite place to buy vinyl is Vinyl World, it’s inexpensive and great quality. A bonus is that it always ships so quickly! Once you buy your first lot they send you out a discount code to use too, which is amazing.

The patterns, colours and vinyl products come in such a vast array. Add in the vinyl themes they have for the holidays such as Halloween and Christmas, you then have some incredible pieces to work with.

And don’t forget the vinyl blanks they have so you can order them with your vinyl, and start making as soon as it reaches your front door.

Vinyl World also have some great tools that are less pricey than the Cricut brand, such as the weeding tools and heat mats.

My favourite tool though is the weeding ring, it’s a little ring styled tool that sits on your finger and has a hole inside it to put all of the pieces of vinyl you remove into. Makes it a little less messy that’s for sure.

The machine was the most expensive part but the fun, relaxation and gifts I have been able to make most definitely means the Cricut has paid for itself.

So now it’s time for me to grab a coffee, sit down and do some weeding.

I hope you enjoyed the read, if you want to leave a tip to fund my next project it would be well appreciated. If not then a share and heart will do just fine.