Stencilling with a Cricut

My next adventure in Cricuting was making stencils out of clear contact paper.  I went out to my crap craft shed and found the bottle of Armour Etch that I bought years ago.  I had no idea whether it was still any good or not, but decided to see.

I am woefully behind on wedding gifts and needed one for a young couple whose surname is Byrd.  I had a nice vase, so I decided to decorate it for them.  I cut a fancy B out of the contact paper and, just for fun, also cut out a little bird on a branch right over the "B"  I applied the vinyl to the vase, although I had to cut the sides of the vinyl AROUND the design in order to accommodate the curve of the vase.

I pressed the contact paper down really well, especially around the edges of the design, and then I applied the etching cream and prayed that it would still work in spite of being 10+ years old.  I waited about 15 minutes, and then scraped the etching cream back into the bottle and ran the vase under running water to wash off the rest of the etching cream.  I then removed the contact paper to see if the etching cream worked.

IT WORKED!!!  WOO HOO!  No need to buy more of that expensive stuff!

I put a blue towel inside the vase in hopes of getting a decent picture, but you can barely see the branch on which the little birdie is sitting.  Anyway, I think it turned out pretty cute, and I hope that T and C like it!

I then started thinking about what else I could etch.  I thought about my Pyrex bowls and pans, and how I've always had to write my name on a piece of masking tape to stick to the bottom of the dish at pot luck suppers.  So, I cut out another stencil, along with a curvy little design on each side, and stuck it on my Pyrex meat loaf pan.  I did both sides of the pan this way.  I should be pretty "cool" at the next pot luck supper with my monogrammed cookware!



While I was looking for the Armour Etch cream, I came across some candles that I had bought on sale a couple of years ago.  I had intended to try my hand at hand-painting candles but never got "a round tuit".  I also found the bottle of candle medium that I bought for that unattempted project, along with a bottle of black craft paint.  Yeah!  I was in business!

Well, I did a couple of candles, and I'm not thrilled with either one of them.  I wiped down the candles with alcohol, let them dry and then applied the contact paper.  It was hard to get the contact paper to stick down very well on the candles,, and the paint is best when applied with a wide foam brush.  The nativity scene was supposed to have a very thin arch over the whole scene, but I ended up scraping it off.  I also got the bright idea of applying glitter to the star, but managed to glitter Joseph's head, as well.  Oh, well, this will do for us, but I wouldn't give it to anyone else!

My next candlepainting project was this fancy monogram.  Again, it was hard to get the contact paper to stick to the candle well, and while I was stuggling with it, I managed to get it crooked!  This design is too fancy, and some of the parts of it are just too thin to do well as a stencil on candles.  It'll do for us, though!



A poster on the HGTV craft boards suggested that I cut my designs out of black tissue paper and use a piece of waxed paper to hold the design against the candle while I use a blow dryer to melt the candle wax just enough to soak into the tissue paper design.  I have a few more candles, so I'm going to give that idea a try.

I've been painting the doors and trim in my entry way this week, so I will be back as soon as I finish that job and get the walls painted!