Hi friends, thanks for joining me today as I share how I made my wall decals for my studio. As with most of my designing I start with sketches on Procreate. I want very simple designs with clean lines to create a modern feel to flowers. Although my style is usually more shade and texture in my images for this project I wanted a flat image. The reason for this, is that the atmosphere in my studio is extremely important to my creative process, and so I wanted something bright and cheerful but I didn’t want my decor to interrupt my process or influence my creativity.
So in Procreate I started with an initial sketch
Once I was happy with the design I went over my design with an ink brush to get nice smooth lines
And filled in the design as I wanted the whole image cut out
Once I was happy with the sketch (I decided to exclude the flower image which had fluted edges as I preferred the other for this project). I turned it into a finished design and exported it as a PNG file and opened it in Cricut's Design Space ( this is a dedicated programme to use with Cricut tools such as the Maker, Explore machines Mug Press etc.)
Once in the app I could refine the design by duplicating it for the amount I wanted. I resized some of the images to give variation, I also added some circles using Design Space tools (it has several shapes built in). I changed the colours of the files so that Design Space would sort the different coloured files into separate coloured vinyl. So for example, all the pink elements were grouped together so that once I fed the pink vinyl into the machine it would cut all the pink ones, and like wise the green ones etc.
I really like this feature as it simplifies the process so much. Once I was happy with all the settings I pressed make it. I have the new Maker 3 which uses smart materials and these do not need a cutting mat.
At this point the machine asks you what materials you are using and then tells you what blade to use. In this instance I was using smart vinyl which means I don't have to use a cutting and it also told me I needed the fine point blade which i loaded into my machine.
In the image below you can see my Maker vinyl tray and my blades
The adapter tray holds your rolls of vinyl and neatly fit onto the Maker. It guides your material in and gets it ready to cut. Once you press make it, the machine feeds the vinyl in measuring just how much you need, if you have enough for the project it then goes on to cut it, if not it tells you so you don't waste it and spoil your project. Once all the designs in each colour were cut the adapter has a cutting tool allowing you cut the roll of vinyl off so you again don't waste anything.
Next I weeded away the the edges of the vinyl leaving only the cut images.
I started to place my images on the walls using transfer sheets but realised that as the images were so large that I didn’t really need to use it and so just peeled them off the carrier sheets and then placed them where I wanted them.
I used removable Smart Vinyl from Cricut as if I want to remove them at a later date I can, but you can also get permanent vinyl which is more sticky.
Here’s some photos of the finished project.
I hope I have inspired you. The Cricut maker and materials can be purchased from Country View Crafts.
If you are interested I also have a post on how I transformed my studio with the decals being the final project
take care
hugs
Debsxx
