Apparently it's apparent.
My friends have sort of caught on. And last week, my awesome friend Aimee brought her toys over when she came for a much needed big girl playdate while the kids were at school. She has the new Cricut Explore™ (can you sense me drooling?), and we had a blast with the brand-spankin' new cut-able Cricut Decorative Window Cling, Black.
My problem, as always, is too many ideas and too much fun. Where to even start? So I narrowed myself by choosing a very narrow little window that still has a big impact because of the high-traffic location in our home.
This tiny transom window next to the door is a weird space I never know what to do with. I already have bats flying in my house, so spiders seemed the perfect creepy crawly choice.
Aimee showed me how to select my designs and size them the way I want them. It is really very intuitive with the Cricut program. It's a simple matter of selecting the graphic. It then appears on your design page. Clicking on the graphic enables sizing and movement within the page, and while sizing, the dimensions, both width and height are displayed. I was able to get my spider web to the exact width of my transom window by measuring my window first, then adjusting the graphic to the same width.
Maybe it's the little kid in me, but I have way too much fun watching the cutter create the designs.
Applying the window clings is SO easy! The spider web took some patience to get on straight because it's delicate, but it was worth it.
I think Aimee thought we were done after such a big project (and I absolutely should have been). But I was all caught up in the Halloween spirit, and had fallen in love with one particular seasonal subway-art-like graphic. So we tried that one, big, in window cling, for my mirror in my kitchen.
Things I learned:
1- The window clings look AWESOME!
2- It was too big and too delicate, so it took a long time to get onto the mirror correctly. I love the result, but it was difficult. Instead, I'd probably do it in vinyl on glass and put it in a funky frame and put it up for Halloween.
3 - Because it was so big, we tried to use the transfer paper (the sticky stuff like giant masking tape) that is used with vinyl application to keep the pattern straight as we applied it. THIS DOES NOT WORK WITH WINDOW CLING! The window cling sticks to the transfer paper and will not come off easily. It is MUCH easier to simply apply the window cling directly. Unless there is a transfer paper of some sort that is barely sticky at all, I would not recommend using it with the window cling product. After I removed the transfer paper, putting my design on the mirror proceeded much faster and more smoothly.
4- I NEED a Cricut. My mind is buzzing with ideas. For Halloween, the cute projects Cricut Halloween Treat Bags and Cricut 3D Pumpkins look like so much fun! I'm a new convert. That's all there is to it. :)