Introducing Textured Translucent Vinyl - a Spring-themed hanging glass bulb

This week the design team have had the opportunity to try out Silhouette's Textured Translucent Vinyl. Adding vinyl is an easy way to personalise home decor and I decided to add a spring-like design to a hanging glass bulb to make a unique tea light holder.

The vinyl is available in 12-inch wide, 4 foot long rolls in a selection of colours (green, pink, light blue, lavender, black and white. It can be cut as, with or without a mat in the Cameo, or cut down to fit the Portrait. The vinyl has a strong permanent adhesive and is suitable for indoor and outdoor use. The textured translucent finish looks particularly effective on transparent surfaces such as glass.

Supplies Used: 
Silhouette CAMEO®
Silhouette Cutting Mat
Silhouette Studio®
Silhouette Textured Translucent Vinyl – green, pink, white and blue
Hanging Glass Bulb
LED Tea Light
Design ID #19693 - Flower Vase by Samantha Walker


STEP 1: Selecting a Design
Although the vinyl is a good bit thicker than regular vinyl, quite intricate designs can be cut from it. If you have a rounded object like this glass bulb, choose a design that is not too solid, and not enclosed within a shape, so that the design's shape can be arranged to match the counters of the object.

STEP 2: Preparing the Design
Open your design in the workspace, ungroup it, and delete the vase. Using the knife tool, cut the vase off the main image and discard it (Click on the Knife tool, hold down Shift on the keyboard, and draw the knife across where the stems meet the vase.

Similarly, prune the flower heads at the top of the stems and discard them.

Measure the base of the bulb and draw a circle of similar size.

STEP 3: Cutting the Vinyl
Add scraps of the translucent vinyl to the mat and move the design pieces to the corresponding positions on the virtual mat. Cut duplicate stems if you plan to add more than one set to the bulb.

Send the design to cut, selecting the 'Vinyl, Translucent' setting. It was absent on my version of the software and I used the cut settings as shown (Blade 3, Force 30, Passes 1). Your settings may be different so do try it out with a test cut first.

STEP 4: Applying the Vinyl
For larger designs, weed around the designs and lift them using transfer tape. As these designs were so small, it was possible to lift them from the backing, and place them on the object with the aid of a weeding hook.

First apply the green circle to the base of the bulb, centring it carefully. This gives a level base to align the stem pieces. Next adhere the stems placing the middle base on first and then smoothing upwards and to the sides. Finally add the flower heads.

A battery operated LED tea light can be placed inside and then the hanging bulb decoration is complete.

This bulb is easy to make and very effective (if difficult to capture in a photograph). I hope you'll try it.


Bye for now,

  Crafting Quine Blog | @CraftingQuine

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