Sarah Jane's Craft Blog

I've been enjoying making signs using these metal blanks from Dollar Tree by adding vinyl cut on my Silhouette Cameo . They're usually pretty easy (as long as the weeding goes ok) and turn out cute. So with the upcoming Easter holiday, I was putting up a few decorations and realized I didn't have any signs. Well, that cannot stand--it was now a moral imperative that I made a couple of Easter signs. I perused the freebies in my Silhouette library from over the years and found a couple that I could use. Since I had an idea that was definitely an experiment in mind, I measured my signs and arranged duplicate versions and backup designs and some extra eggs to fill the 12 x 12 grid. After I cut the vinyl , I started weeding the "backup" design. After the nerve-wracking bit of pulling off the exterior vinyl, I thought I was home free--but it turns out I missed a section of the second "E" and it got stuck to the exterior vinyl and thrown out in the trash. This

Check out all of the Easter craft projects from Sarah Jane's Craft Blog here: Easter Craft Collection  

While I was cutting the vinyl decal for last week's project on my Silhouette Cameo , I made a spare vinyl decal design (in case something went wrong). Since it was a simple design, I had the idea to try to use it as a reverse stencil (inside letters) and, if I could salvage it, a regular stencil (outside of the letters). To start out, I needed to prep a wooden sign to be used with the letters from the decal as a reverse stencil. Since the letters will be peeled away, I needed a nice surface or color to show through. I have used a paint wash in the past, but since I found out you could use alcohol ink to dye wood different colors, I thought making it green would be appropriate and a lot of fun. I got out a silicone craft mat to protect the table and a small container in which I could put some green alcohol ink. Then I added a bit of rubbing alcohol to thin the ink and grabbed a foam brush . I used the foam brush to paint on the thinned green ink and then set it aside to dry fo

If you've been following the blog, you know that I'm addicted to these little metal signs you can pick up at Dollar Tree. So after acquiring a few more, I made a cute little St. Patrick's Day sign to add to my collection. I started by selecting a design one of my freebie designs from the Silhouette store and setting it to cut using standard glossy vinyl settings. I put my sheet of green vinyl on a cutting mat for easy loading and let it cut the design on my old Silhouette Cameo . I separated my design from the rest of the sheet of vinyl with a scissor. Then I grabbed a weeding tool and carefully peeled and picked away the excess vinyl. The thing letters were a bit of a pain (each one pulled off the backing and had to be freed from the vinyl and positioned back into place), but the weeding only made me swear a couple of times. I applied a piece of transfer tape to the design and rubbed it down with the handle of the weeding tool. I peeled off the paper backing and placed