Acrylic Weekly Schedule

I am sure I am not the only one who likes to see what is going on for the week either in a planner or on their phone. Making this schedule was not a completely planned out project but I had thought about making one before. When inspiration hit I just went with it and started. It was a pretty fast project once I got going from planning it out in Cricut Design Space to adding the vinyl. The only part that is taking longer than planned is painting it, I just have no idea what I want to do. It’s still usable with or without paint so I am in no rush to paint it.

I used up so much of my scrap pieces of black vinyl with this project. I have tons of smaller pieces of all different colours so if there is any chance to use the scraps I am going to. I don’t like throwing away vinyl scraps unless it’s so small that they can’t be used. I keep some to use to mark things if there are two of the same thing.

The instructions are set up to explain how to make it if you are using a bigger machine like the Maker or the Joy which is what I used. I didn’t want to pull out the bigger machine so I worked with the Joy. It may have taken a bit longer but I was okay with it. Depending on the setup and size of the image it can be done in one cut to keep the spacing and alignment stay the same. For the length and the spacing it would have wasted too much vinyl for me so I did it with the scraps and cut individually. If it had been a custom order it would have done the bigger cut not individually. 

Materials

• Long acrylic sheet - Michaels, Amazon or a craft store 
• Oracal 651 vinyl black - preferred colour
• Decals for sign (once done cutting)
• Transfer tape
• Cricut Machine - Maker, Air 2 or Joy
• Fine point blade (maker or air) or standard blade (joy)
• Cricut Design Space - on a tablet, phone or computer
• Standard mat for the machine that you are using
• Scraper 
• Brayer - to help adhere the vinyl down when needed
• Alcohol wipe(s)
• Self-healing mat with grid lines - help with keeping the vinyl straight (optional) 
• Scissors 
• Masking tape (optional)
• Twine or ribbon for hanging

How to make

Creating the decals 

1. Open Cricut Design Space. 
2. Go to “images” and search for days of the week. If you use an image that has all the days of the week remember to ungroup it so you can work with each day individually.
3. Go back to “images” and search for the lines or dots or whatever you would like to use to break up the days. 
4. Go to “shapes” choose a rectangle and adjust to the acrylic sheet size. This will help with placing and sizing. Not necessary but helpful. When ready to cut either delete or hide the rectangle.
5. Move the days of the week and the lines to where you want the images to go. Adjust sizing as needed it will take some playing with. 

Because I was cutting individually I changed the colour of the words so I could use the scrap piece that was the proper size of the black vinyl. 

• For example, for Saturday was in pink and used a piece that was long enough and for Friday in purple to make sure I had the proper size. 

I could have tried to place the scrap pieces on one mat and set up the words in Design Space to match the vinyl placement on the mat and hoped it lined up and cut properly. I have never done that so I went with one at a time.

Cutting and removing the vinyl

Different ways to cut:

• Cut it as one big piece so the spacing stays the way you have it set up 
• Cut each image individually which is how I cut mine since I wanted to use up scrap pieces of vinyl I have stashed away.

1. Turn on your Cricut Machine and make sure the fine point blade is in (maker or air) or a regular blade (joy).
2. Place vinyl on your mat and take your brayer and run it over the vinyl to help adhere to the mat.
3. Go to “make it” and choose the mat for all materials.
4. Choose the material you are working click “continue”. I set to washi sheet setting for thinner smaller cuts (maker or air). Now for using the joy I had created a custom setting so you may have to do test cuts.
5. Load the mat into the machine when prompted.
6. Click flashing “C” (maker or air) or “Go” (joy)
7. Repeat as needed.

Removing and weeding the vinyl

1. Once the cut is done unload the mat. 
2. Flip the mat over and peel the mat off the vinyl to keep it from curling.
3. Take your weeding tool and remove the vinyl not needed. Keep scissors nearby just in case you need to cut any vinyl getting in your way.
4. Repeat as needed.

Applying vinyl

1. Place the self-healing on your work surface grid side up.
2. Place the acrylic sheet on the self-healing mat and make sure it is lined up with the gridlines I use some masking tape on the back to hold it down (optional).
3. Wipe down the area you are placing the vinyl with the alcohol wipes. 
4. Cut a piece of transfer tape to match the size of the vinyl you are working with.
5. Place transfer tape on top of the vinyl you are working with and take the scraper and run it over to help remove bubbles and adhere it to the transfer tape.
6. Pull off the backing of the vinyl so now the vinyl is on the transfer tape take your time with it.
7. Line up the vinyl with gridlines to give you an idea of it straight and place it down again take your time don’t rush.
8. Take the scraper and run it over the transfer tape to help adhere it down.
9. Slowly peel away the transfer tape and take your time and 
10. Use your finger or the brayer to go over it just for a little extra help to adhere it. This isn’t necessary but I always do it.
11. Repeat as needed.
12. Add twine or ribbon and hang it in your office, kitchen or where it works best for you!

You can paint back of it if you would like but I haven’t done that yet because I have no idea how I want to paint it so it’s just staring at me until I make up my mind.