A Surprise for My Girls: Another Vinyl Project

Friends, I am getting SUPER excited for my first ever in-person blog conference next month!  I can’t wait to learn and hear the speakers and meet with brands, and of course share my own session about Growing and Engaging Your Community!  But most of all, I am looking forward to meeting these gorgeous faces in real life!

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I’ve “known” Kara and Carrie almost as long as I’ve been blogging, and I met DeDe and Jenny through the first session of my mentoring program.  Kirsten? Well, we connected for a few things earlier on in our blogging careers, but really started chatting once we found out we were both attending this conference. We instantly connected, because we’re kind of like the same person in a lot of ways, and we’re just hoping the conference can handle the awesomeness that is the two of us combined…lol!

Now.  If you are Kara, Carrie, DeDe, Jenny, or Kirsten, STOP READING NOW!  Because I’m going to talk about one of your presents and you can’t see.  I mean it.  I’ll know!

Anyway, we all decided it would be fun to have little gifts for each other when we meet, so each of us is putting together five packages of some of our favorite things for the others.  I’ll be showing you all the things I’m giving the girls at a later date, but since it’s Vinyl Week {Remember, all Silhouette Vinyl is Buy 1 Get 1 Free through August 14 with the code ARTSY!}, I thought I’d show you this little project I made for each of them.

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Before I talk about the process, here’s why I thought it would be the perfect gift for these girls:

A. All bloggers looooove anything {and everything} with their logo on it.
2. We’re probably going to be drinking a lot of water/coffee/tea at the conference, so I’m sure they’ll be useful.
C. I have to make/buy five of every gift, so it needs to be affordable.  These tumblers were 4/$1 at Walmart!
D. It gives me another reason to play with Cammie!

Ok, so here’s what you need to make your own…you could personalize them for your family, a sports team, your school, or just about anything:
Materials:
– solid colored tumbler
– adhesive vinyl
– Silhouette software and cutting machine {or scissors…?}

Step 1: Trace and Cut your vinyl designs.
This was the most time-intensive part of the project for me because I had to either find, save, and trace or else try to duplicate my friends’ logos.  Some of them, like mine, DeDe’s, and Carries, I could just type right in the software because I had the fonts.  Others, like Kara and Kirsten have more complex logos that I downloaded, opened in the software, and traced.

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Step 2: Use transfer paper to adhere to cup!
Once the designs were cut, I used transfer paper to help me place them on the cups.  It was slightly tricky because of the curvature of the cups, but they all ended up looking great!

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Now, they’re ready to give to my friends when I see them in just a few short weeks!  What do you think?  If you’re friends with these gals, SHHHHH!  It’s a secret!  I’ll be sure to share some pictures from the conference when we all give and receive our gifts.

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Now, before you try this at home, let’s have a quick word about vinyl, shall we?  If you want this to be more than a sit on a shelf souvenir, make sure you use vinyl that specifically says you can use it outdoors.  Um, what?  It’s a cup!  Right.  But you’re going to wash it.  And it’s going to hold liquid.  So it has to be weatherproof vinyl.  Otherwise it’ll get all nasty and peel off and nobody wants that.  We all know there are multitudes of places to buy vinyl {*cough*…Silhouette…BOGO Sale…} so if you have some in your stash that’s not labeled outdoor, this probably isn’t the time for it {ahem, no Oracal 631}.

If you physically pick at the letters or scrape them with something, they will come off, but if you just use it like normal, it should stay in good shape!  Now, who will YOU personalize some 25 cent tumblers for?

Hugs & Glitter,

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3 Comments

  1. Hi Amy!!!!

    I love your tumbler idea!!! If I was getting one, I’d make it my #1 drink holder!!! How nice
    and thoughtful you are in doing this for your Blog friends that you will be seeing soon.
    How exciting!!!

    I haven’t had good health to start up my Blog, but, I get inspired by women like you, so,
    keep up the good work!!!

    Pam
    xox

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