Monogrammed Letter Tray

Outgoing mail tends to get a little lost in my house…somewhere between the desk in my office and the mailbox, I’m convinced a tiny creature must be socking away my bills to build a warm home for himself. To solve this problem I picked up an inexpensive tray at a local store, but thought it needed something a little extra. Quick vinyl projects like this are super easy with the CAMEO and can add a lot of personality to your living space.

Here are the materials you will need to make this project:

small tray
Silhouette machine
adhesive vinyl
transfer paper
hook tool
scraper tool

PREPARE THE DESIGN

First you’ll need to prepare your design for cutting. Measure the tray and determine an optimal size for your vinyl design. After you open the shape in the Studio software, you can adjust its size by opening the Scale Menu and entering your desired dimensions. I adjusted the fleur de lis flourish to six inches wide.

To add your name to the split shape, first open the Text Style Menu. Select a font (I chose SNF Felicity), click anywhere on the workspace, and type your desired text.

The height of my text at this size (72pt) was ideal for the design, but I thought the monogram would look more balanced if the name occupied most of the horizontal space available. You can adjust the character spacing in the Text Style Menu using the slider bar until the text nearly spans the entire width of the flourish (I adjusted my character spacing to 150% here).

A quick way to ensure that your text is centered within the flourish design is to select both shapes, open the Align Menu, and click on “Align Center”.

CUT YOUR VINYL

Your design is now ready to be cut out of vinyl. Small projects like this are a great way to use up vinyl scraps, so I took a leftover piece of silver vinyl from another project and placed it on my cutting mat instead of cutting directly from the roll. After moving my completed design to the upper right corner of my workspace to coordinate with the placement of the vinyl on my mat, I opened the Cut Settings Menu, selected “vinyl” as the material type, and prepared to send the design to my CAMEO.

Adjust your blade to the settings indicated in the software (“1” for vinyl). Place the blade in the carriage, insert your cutting mat, and click “Send to Silhouette” in the Cut Settings Menu.

When your design has finished cutting, unload the cutting mat from your machine.

WEED YOUR VINYL

Vinyl that has been on a roll tends to curl under and may be difficult to weed unless you secure it down to a work surface. One of the benefits of using a cutting mat with vinyl, however, is that you can leave it adhered to the mat while you weed and it will lay perfectly flat. I cover most of the sticky mat with its blue liner paper to keep it clean while I weed in this manner. Remove any excess vinyl from your design with the hook tool and dispose of it.

TRANSFER YOUR VINYL

To quickly and precisely move the vinyl design from its carrier sheet to your tray, you will need to use transfer paper. Cut a piece of transfer paper to match the vinyl design, remove its backing, and smooth it over the top of your vinyl with the scraper tool.

Now remove the carrier sheet from the vinyl and position the design on your tray where desired. The red grid lines on the transfer paper can be very helpful for centering and straightening a decal. Use the scraper tool to press the vinyl firmly onto the tray. Slowly remove the transfer paper from the vinyl design, continuing to smooth with your scraper tool if needed (distressed items like this tray may need more pressing than smooth items).

Your personalized tray is now ready to go! Imagine all of the items in your home that you can breathe new life into with just a small amount of vinyl.

I’ll have no excuse for losing those bills anymore, but at least my office will be a little more organized and a lot prettier now.

Want to know how I monogrammed the flap of that envelope? Click here for a tutorial on creating monogram stamps and using other inks with the Silhouette Mint.

DESIGNS USED:

4 Comment