Christmas Bauble Window Decorations

Hi everyone. It's Verity here from Pretty Little Button bringing you another project. Well, I have been on a little hiatus - not intentionally, the machine stopped working and I may have disconnected my screen by accident! So I sent it off the Graphtech to see if they could fix it, and they did, much to my relief! So if you have any problems, contact Graphtech as they might be able to fix and not need to buy a new machine. Today I have a project where I have used the Printable Window Cling Material from Silhouette to create Christmas bauble window decorations. These were very quick to make, so why not, make one for every window you have!

Bauble Window cling decorations details: 

To start, you need to add the Print & Cut registration marks to your design space. Select the page setup icon on the right-hand toolbar, and select the Print & Cut tab in the window. In the 'Style' drop-down menu select type 1 and this will add the registration marks to your design space. The Windo cling material is a letter size (11 X 8.5"), so make sure the page size is set to this as well. 

Next, add your baubles to the design space. I used the nesting baubles by Sarah Hurley. 

I choose a red colour for the fill colour of the baubles and set the line colour to match. To add the design knock-out, position your design over the bauble like I have done here with the 'Joy'. To make it easier to see, I changed the line colour of 'Joy' to white. Next to selecting the bauble and 'Joy' I open the modify window and pressed divide.

This knocks out the 'Joy' out of the bauble. If you decide to print this on white window cling and want the inner design to be white you could just fill the 'Joy' with your desired colour and not do the knock-out effect. However, I printed this onto the clear printable window cling and did not want this part of the design to be coloured. 

Once this has been printed on your inkjet printer - I would set your printer settings to set as though it is printing onto photo paper, load this on to your mat. 

Select the window cling material from the material drop down menu and remember to do a test cut. The settings below are the settings I needed based on my blade and machine to cut the cling material. 

However, the settings below are what the material originally was set to. You can see how your blade and machine and be different to the standards. So always do a test cut!

I haven't quite got round to putting my Xmas decs up yet so as you can see the window is a little bare!

If this has inspired you to try this out, please post below. I would love to see it!

Until next time,

Verity




Profile | Pretty Little Button Blog | Instagram | Facebook

DESIGNS USED:

Christmas tree by Silhouette -  Design ID 71443
Mistletoe  by Kolette Hall  - Design ID 71506
Snowflake by Miss Kate Cuttables - Design ID 72060
Reindeer by Hero Arts - Design ID 72103
Nested baubles by Sarah Hurley - Design ID 96776
Joy snowflake by Sophie Gallo - Design ID 236917

PRODUCTS USED:

     

Watch Out Little Birdie - Clear Window Cling and Vinyl

Hello. This week on the Silhouette UK Blog I've had the opportunity to try out the Silhouette Clear Window Cling. I made a sign for my bedroom window, to deter our feathered visitors from flying into the windows. Now the days are getting colder we've started to put more feed out for the birds, and in their excitement they have a habit of slamming into our windows. I can't describe the shock I get when collide with my bedroom window, and I decided this was the perfect opportunity to make something to reduce the problem.

I could have used a flying bird outline as a bird deterrent, but I wanted to do something a little different. I also wanted something that could easily be moved to different windows, and easily removed then reapplied after window cleaning. Window cling was the perfect material for this, and Nic Squirrell's lovely Bluebird Papercut file (#266149) was a cute design to use.

My next challenge was that my printer was out of ink, so I wasn't able to take advantage of the printable property of this material. However, I had read (somewhere) that it was possible to combine cling with vinyl to make a removable and reusable decal. Despite a heap of searching I couldn't find the original post, so I thought I'd go ahead and try it anyway, and share my results with you here.


Preparing the Design

STEP 1: Removing the Feather detail

To remove the feather detail I released the compound path on the design and deleted the parts that I didn't require. Then I re-made the compound path.


STEP 2: Adding Text

I wrote the wording in Back to Black Bold font (#250042) and adjusting the sizing and placement of the words until they fitted on the bird's chest.


STEP 3: Subtracting the Text (optional)

To make the decal as displayed below, I subtracted the text from the bird, and then filled the design with a colour. Subtracting and filling is not necessary, but makes the design easier to visualise. The text will cut correctly if you just place it in position and set it to cut.

STEP 4: Making the Cling Layer with an Offset

The cut lines for the layer to be cut from the window cling media were made by using the Offset tool, selecting the bird, and making an offset of distance 0.5 cm. Unwanted small internal shapes created in the offset process were deleted prior to cutting.


Cutting the Main Design

I cut the main design (shown in grey, above) from white sign vinyl. Silhouette now have Oracal 651 PremiumVinyl, which comes with this higher contrast blue backing (for the white colour only).

The offset layer was cut in the cling vinyl, using a slightly deeper setting so that the backing was cut as well as the cling.

The vinyl layer was lifted from it's backing using transfer tape, and aligned onto the cling layer.

The white vinyl design was smoothed on, and once all air bubbles were removed, the transfer tape was carefully peeled away, leaving the almost complete window cling.

I had lost a few of the insides of the letters in the weeding process. As the pieces were very small, I cut them again from the white vinyl, but first added a small offset of 0.02 cm to make them a little bigger and easier to handle. These were then transferred individually onto the completed window cling with a corner of the transfer tape.

The decal was finished, and to install it, the paper backing was peeled off the back. No preparation is required to the window before adhering, but I cleaned the window - just for you!

That's all there is to it! I've had no collisions since the window cling was installed - lets hope it stays that way.



Bye for now,

  Crafting Quine Blog | Instagram @CraftingQuine

DESIGNS USED:


PRODUCTS USED: