September 26, 2020: Composite Heart

Products Used

Am I crazy? Yeah, probably…

In the spirit of continuing with the heart designs from Cricut, I chose to make this composite heart design next. I really love how all of the random shapes come together to make the heart. It’s a different feel from most of the previous ones where the hearts create a different image.

Why did I think EIGHT LAYERS for a design was a GOOD idea?! Maybe I’ve decided to take on a challenge? Perhaps I wanted to use up some of my scraps? Step up my game? All of the above? Sure, we’ll go with those. Let’s just ignore the whole insanity thing. As a result, I made a composite heart design. I do feel that this composite heart design looks pretty darn good. I’m a fan!

I have to say that these TeckWrap Craft vinyls look really good when altogether in designs, which is another reason why I say that I’m a fan. Really it makes me want to do more and more designs with multiple layers of their vinyls. Perhaps I have gone crazy…

But all I wanna do is craft!

New Tool, Who’s She?

With my most recent TeckWrap order, I guess I’ve spent enough and they deemed me worthy of receiving this wonderful new little tool to add to my ever-growing collection of craft tools. I’ve seen many other crafters using this tool, so I was understandably excited to receive one of my very own. TeckWrap calls it their air release weeding tool. I call it a retractable fake pen of shabby fun. Their description is more appropriate and accurate. Mine is…as crazy as I tend to be at times.

Since I recently received this beautiful new stabby tool, I had to put it to use. I’ll be honest, it will take some practice to master it properly and use it to its full potential. To be fair, I am just too used to my little sharp pokey hook and use the hook as a bit of a weeding crutch when it comes to lifting the pieces away from the design. With what is essentially a straight pin in a mechanical pencil (but WAY better designed), practice will be necessary.

OK, But What Problems Were Overcome?

There’s always SOMETHING, right? Something is bound to go wrong with every single project.

NOT TODAY MY FRIENDS!!! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! See? Proof that I am indeed crazy by this point.

This is the first project in who knows how long that has gone exactly how it was planned. I was able to position all scrap pieces of vinyl onto two separate mats (instead of eight) and each piece released from the mat easily. Even when using a new weeding tool, each piece weeded well, albeit slow due to the intricacies of some of the smaller design elements. The transfer tape had no issues picking up each section and placing them onto the desired surface and to be honest, I honestly feel a bit like I won some kind of crafting lottery or something.

If I were to choose something that was undesired, I would say the position of the design on the box lid was a bit off kilter. It could have been centered a bit better, but this was eight sections coming together into one whole design. Honestly, I’m just relieved that none of the design elements overlap! With all coming together without fail, this composite heart design is complete! *applause*

Here To Help You

Recently I’ve been successfully creating and posting process videos not just to Instagram and Facebook, but to YouTube as well. I’ve been trying to make sure that when YouTube videos post that they are also embedded here on the corresponding blog post. Hopefully, the addition of extended cut process videos will start to help answer some of the questions some have about various projects. If you have any tips, suggestions, comments, etc. that you think would help that I can do for you, just let me know! Feel free to leave me a comment below, send me an email (link at the top of every page) or drop a comment on any of my socials.

Another effort to help clarify each project will be including links to not just the products I use, but the tools as well. I’ve realized lately that I am getting more questions about the various tools in videos and find myself sharing links to them in the comments section. Hopefully in including the tools in the ‘Products Used’ section of each post, it will help others if they want to try those same tools. You may see more image links to products as I mention them as well. It’ll be my attempt to make products more visible and easy to find in the event anyone would like to purchase them for themselves.

Also in the spirit of trying new things, I am working to incorporate a little gallery of sorts within each new project post. Hopefully doing so will help others see more of the details of the project versus only the one provided in the beginning. Again, feel free to give me your thoughts and opinions. If it’s helpful to you, I am happy to do what I can!