Using vinyl on your layouts

When I first started scrapbooking there were limited ways of getting lettering on your pages. You could buy stickers or use punch out letters. Stickers were great because they came in an array of colors and sizes. However, there were always those times you needed to spell "Mississippi" and you only had 2 "i" stickers left! OH THE HORROR!! Then came the amazing Cricut machine. In the beginning you could cut out your letters, then came the ability to weld into words! That was a game changer for scrapbooking.  With each new Cricut machine came new abilities. I was completely satisfied with my Expressions 2 until I watched a few Youtube videos on the new Explore machine and that was it, I was sold. I bought it the next day. I loved that not only could I create amazing titles for my layouts but I could also use vinyl to decorate wine glasses, ornaments, and so many other items. 

Then one day I was working on my son's baby book and I was struggling to complete the cover page. I didn't want his birth stats because they had been used on the first few pages. As I was looking through posted layouts on one of my favorite FB pages I noticed one crafter used a photo of the hospital their child was born in - PERFECT!!! I was able to find a good picture of our hospital that printed nicely. The thought of using stickers to spell out "St. Mary's Hospital ~ Leonardtown, MD" and have it evenly spaced and fit perfectly within the 12 in space was a daunting task. And that's when it hit me - USE VINYL - I could make it fit the exact size in my space and I could use transfer paper to place it on the page all at once as opposed to letter by letter. I decided to use vinyl for all of the wording on that page. 

So now I am addicted to using vinyl on my pages. It comes in just as many colors as paper or stickers. You never run out of letters. You can change the font, size, and spacing.  The other awesome part about using vinyl is that it cuts clean so you can cut very tiny letters. 

The layout above is my son's first day of "school". His teachers names across the bottom of the left page and the wording on the ribbon on the right page are both vinyl. Now, does this mean I never use my stickers anymore? Nope, I still LOVE them. There are times that I want to add a quick date or word to a page and don't wanna design and cut. Below are 2 pages I have recently used sticker letters/numbers on.

Below are a few examples of other pages that I used vinyl on. The page below is a Halloween layout. The spider web and the word "Halloween" are both done using vinyl. 

The nautical page below has a paper title but the words

 "Edgewater, MD" on the bottom right was done using vinyl. 

So although all my lettering in my scrapbooks isn't vinyl, there are definitely times were vinyl makes my life super easy! So I'm sure some of you are thinking that vinyl costs a lot more than paper but it actually doesn't. Black is what I use the most so I buy it in big rolls making it very cost effective. The other pro to using vinyl is that since it cuts so clean you can use very small pieces of scrap vinyl to cut small words.