Working in an Elementary School library I’m constantly looking for ways to create an engaging environment for our young readers. There was a drab display over our level one nonfiction readers that was kind of cringey and better suited for a nursery. I kid you not, it had a faded narwhal on it and written in cut out words around it was something super cliche like “I will Narwhal-ways love you.” Every time I’d glance over in its direction it was hard not to smile and wonder who thought it would be a great idea for a school library.

Time for a change

When our LMS started, she took one look at it and insisted it had to go! We began to brainstorm over what should hang over the book display. We thought a map of the world would be just the thing for the space! She went ahead and ordered an adorable canvas print map that we knew the kiddos would love. You know, the kind in soft pastels with pictures of animals on it? When it arrived and we hung it on the wall, we both realized it lacked a little oomph! It was lacking a catchy slogan about books. Together we came up with the words “Books can take you anywhere”. Then it was down to colors and fonts. Stephanie wanted something that would pop with a bold red lettering. To make it more kid friendly I different colors with the bold red coming into play in the word “Anywhere”. I chose a font that tied into the font already on the canvas to keep it fun and uniform.

Once the details of wording, font and color were out of the way I could finally whip out the Cricut Air 2 and get started! Here’s how to do it:

Getting Started

Once you’ve plugged in your Cricut Explore Air 2 to both your computer and the power supply you’ll want to go ahead and turn it on. If you’ve connected it to your computer by the HDMI cable that comes with it, it should automatically link. In the upper right-hand corner of your project is a green “make it” option. Go ahead and click on “make it”.

A screen will pop up that looks like this. I’m not doing anything super fancy so I just selected “On Mat for any material” and the 12 in x 12 in selection then hit confirm.

Here’s what my next screen looked like. Since we’re working with permanent vinyl you do not need to worry about flipping your image. You want your image cut exactly how it will be on your canvas! We are now about to begin cutting our vinyl to fit our Cricut mat. You’ll want to pay close attention to the grid sizes on the screen to know what size to cut your vinyl to. For example, in the image above it looks like I will have to cut my red permanent vinyl to 9 inches in width by 6 inches in length. I always make my cuts with a little wiggle room for error, it’s best to cut a little larger than a little smaller. Once you have cut your permanent vinyl to size, place it vinyl side up on your Cricut mat. Hit the green continue button in the lower right-hand corner of your screen.

Making the Cut

See the knob in the above picture? If it’s not already set to vinyl turn it to the vinyl selection. Feed your prepared Cricut mat in between the two grooves on the feeder and lightly push it in so that it’s touching the rollers. The up and down arrow button on your Cricut machine should be flashing. Hit that button and it will intake your Cricut mat. Once your Cricut mat is in, the Cricut C button will begin flashing. Press the Cricut C button, sit back and let it work it’s magic! When it’s finished cutting it will push the mat out and the up and down arrow button will begin flashing again. Hit the up and down arrow button and remove your Cricut mat. Now take your Cricut Weeder (hooky looking doodad) and take off all of the vinyl so only the image or words that you want are left on the white sheet.

Once everything is cut and weeded it should look something like the above picture. I spaced everything out on my desk so I could gage how I wanted everything to look.

Making Contact

If you’re working on a sentence with different blocks of colored words like me, try spacing them out evenly on a flat surface in front of you how they will be on your canvas. Next, take contact paper and cut it so that it will completely cover your vinyl.

Apply your contact paper over your words being careful not to jostle the layout. I used the roll out method and rolled it onto my vinyl a little bit at a time. Flip it over so that the contact paper side is facing down and use your Cricut Scraper to push out any air bubbles and ensure your vinyl is well adhered to your contact paper.

Releasing the Backing

Slowly start peeling back the white paper side being careful not to pull up your vinyl letters with it. If your vinyl starts to pull up, carefully push the paper back down onto your contact paper. Use your scraper to push that section back down onto the contact paper.

Once all of the white paper backing to is removed it should look like this.

Finishing Up

Now it’s time to finally see if all of that hard work paid off! Grab your canvas and place your Vinyl where you would like it to be. Remember your Cricut Scraper that you used a minute ago? Grab your scraper and make sure you’re happy with the placement of your vinyl. Starting at the center of your vinyl use your scraper to lightly push down and smooth out. Make sure that you apply enough pressure so that it adheres but not so much that you damage your canvas. Pick a corner of your contact paper and carefully peel up making sure that your permanent vinyl doesn’t come up with it. If it starts to come up, smooth it back down to the canvas and slowly peel back up in that spot once it’s adhered. Is all of your contact paper off? Then step back and admire your handiwork! You just turned that plain canvas from drab to fab and in the process created something truly unique!

Links

To make your life and project a little easier I will link all of the supplies used below. Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link to finalize a purchase.