I have a big to do list, do you? Well, I’m really going to try and get it all accomplished and that starts with making some of these layered vinyl acrylic ornaments that I bought from Craft Chameleon.
With the purchase of the acrylic shape, you get the cute cut file to go with it, detailed instructions and several file types.
So my first thought when I opened the file up was – “NO WAY! That’s a lot of pieces!” But it went together quite quickly and I only sent it through my Cameo to cut 1 time.
Yes, 1 time sending it through to cut. Today, I’m going to show you how I do that.
I do this with both cardstock and vinyl and it works well for me for a lot of reasons.
By cutting down my material to the size I need, I feel it makes my mats last longer because I’m not sticking a full sheet of vinyl down on the mat and peeling it back up. So I am saving the adhesive on my mat for more uses. This has worked well for me over the years of paper crafting and now vinyl cutting.
Now that I have the file in front of me, I gather the colors of vinyl I will need to use.
After opening the file, I selected all the pieces and moved them off my mat, into the holding area.
Now, I’m going to move the different colors around on my mat and then match up my vinyl colors on my cutting mat to each of the pieces.
I use the Transparency slider on the Page Setup Panel to see my cutting mat grid and then start lining it up.
Note: the Page Setup Panel changed a bit with the v4 software release.
In older software versions it is called Reveal.
I move all the white onto the mat and position it.
Then I cut my white vinyl down to the size I need.
When you first start out doing this, I would suggest giving yourself a little wiggle room in the size of vinyl that you cut for your shapes. And use the old saying “Measure twice, cut once.” Even though I’ve been doing it this way for years, I still might get a piece cut the wrong size for what I need.
Then I place it in the exact same place on my cutting mat that it appears in the software.
And I continue doing this for all of the pieces that need to be cut out.
The vinyl is lined up with where I’ve placed the pieces of my design to cut out this entire image in one Send through the Cameo.
Now, keep in mind the stickiness of your mat will play a factor in this too. If your mat is really sticky, you can get away with cutting out a small piece of vinyl such as a 1″ x 1″ square. My mat is well used, so for best results I may cut pieces a bit larger or arrange the pieces to be cut so I can use a bigger sheet of vinyl, for it to hold better. I have done this above for the yellow and several colors with smaller pieces.
After it’s cut, I will cut the piece of vinyl down to only the area I need and put the uncut piece back in my scrap pile to use later.
Once all the vinyl is cut, I will weed each piece and follow the very detailed instructions that come with the file to layer the vinyl onto the acrylic blank. It really does take you step by step through layering the design.
And then you have your finished product. Isn’t this cute? And it really didn’t take much time at all.
Here is a video I created showing the entire process from Opening the file, cutting the vinyl and applying it to the ornament. I used the Stocking ornament in this video which can be found HERE.
Here is the finished photo of the Stocking ornament.
And here are the ones I have created so far. All of these can be found under the Blanks & Holiday category at Craft Chameleon.
Enjoy!
**This post may contain affiliate links. What that means is that I may receive compensation if you purchase through the links I have provided. The price you pay for the product or service is not higher but I may get compensated for sharing.
My machine always starts the cuts .25 inches r more higher than the grid on the cutting mat. Can u help?
LikeLike
Do you have the Cutting Mat selected on the Page Setup Panel – top right icon or is it set to No Mat?
If that does not correct it, can post a photo of your full design screen on my Facebook group so I can see what you see – https://www.facebook.com/groups/432548673582300/
LikeLike