Watercolor Vinyl Calligraphy Cricut Explore Air 2

This post is sponsored by Cricut! I am part of their blogger team and they give me fabulous supplies. Affiliate links in the post.

Watercolor Vinyl Calligraphy with Cricut Explore Air 2

Do you love the Calligraphy/Hand Lettering craze?  It's like the new chevron, right!?  I love it.  I love writing but I've wasted so much paper making mistakes and smudging it right at the end...it can be a little frustrating!

But first:

Let's talk about the Cricut Explore Air™ 2 machine

The Cricut is an electronic cutter for home use.  It hooks to your computer through a usb cord or using bluetooth and an app on your ipod or iphone. 

How is it different than other cutting machines?

I've only used a Silhouette Cameo and the Cricut Explore Air 2.

There's a detailed explanation of the 2 machines here.

I love my Cricut, I use it nearly every day.

Cricut has a far superior machine than any other one I've used.  I love the built in storage and the dual tool holder.  I love the speed cut option as well...especially if you are in a hurry for a project and it's not super detailed--or it's a bulk project, you can speed it up for faster work.

I have had some learning curve getting used to the software, personally it's not my favorite.  If you have never used other cutting software or photoshop, it's super simple.  I think I'm coming from a more complicated realm of software to the Cricut Design Space, so I have to remember how simple it is.

The best part about the software is the undo button.  Seriously, just press all the buttons.  Nothing will explode or ruin your project.  If you aren't sure what something does, test it out!  If it's not the effect you want, just click the "undo" button.  Easy peasy.  There is nothing simpler than learning this software.

If you want to work on multiple projects (like work on another project while one is cutting) just open a new browser tab and Cricut Design Space and start working there.

That's what I did here and I'll show you how.

Here's a great project you can do whether you do lettering or not.

These are so simple to make and they look gorgeous!

Here's the link to the free png files

Supplies Needed:

Watercolor Paper
Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolors
Cricut Machine
Vinyl
Painters tape

Begin by taping some watercolor paper down to your work surface using painters tape.

Then use water and paint to create a fun watercolor wash.

Here's a post where I show how to wash a little more detailed.
Here's a video of the process:

I love watercolors, they are so fun.

Just splash and splatter colors all over and then let them dry completely.

Keep them taped down until they are dry to prevent paper warping.

Now you can letter right on the paper...but this is fast and easy for those of us that don't letter.

I used Adhesive Metallic Foil and Holographic vinyl for these.

Take the png image and upload it into Cricut Design Space. Select the "simple"

 Then save as a cut file.

 Then insert into the canvas.  Scale it to the size you want and then click make it!

Just place the foil on the cutting mat and insert into the machine.

Click the "Cricut" go button.

I love the shimmery foil.

Remove from the mat, cut to size, remove excess vinyl.

Place a piece of transfer tape on top of the vinyl and rub with the scraper tool.

Peel off the backing and place, slightly skewed on the watercolor paper.

Rub with the scraper tool.

Then peel back the transfer tape and roll it over itself to remove it.

Looks shiny and awesome!

I repeated with the holographic vinyl.

I love this holographic vinyl...it's opal, so it's an array of blues and pinks and golds.

It's so much fun.

This makes a great gift!

So simple and easy to throw together in a few minutes!

I love putting a "choose happy" where my kids can see it, so they remember that it is their choice everyday.

And some fun patriotic decor!

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