I decided recently that I need to de-clutter my making space, and in the process I was going through my vinyl collection. I have so many cool colors, but I rarely feel inspired to do anything with it on my cricut. As I went back and forth on whether to donate it or not, the thought occurred to me that I could use it for something for the rainbow contest. Since I have a lot of frames that need new life, I figured why not try to spruce them up with some vinyl?

So, this project was the result of trying to figure out something I could do without my cricut, and could also utilize what I already had in my space. It is a great project for if you have a lot of odds-and-ends of vinyl from other projects that could be combined for a project like this!

P.S. The artwork in the frame is from a Chicago artist named Lucie-Ann Chen; it is so cute and I just had to make a frame to match the colors of the print!

Supplies

This is a great project if you have a lot of scraps of vinyl laying around from other projects!

Any sticker vinyl you have (the more colors the better!)
A frame (or something else you want to mosaic)
Scissors
(Optional) Wax paper/backing of used stickers (for you to put the cut up pieces on)

Step 1: Cut Out Your Shapes

It's helpful to start out by cutting out a batch of shapes first, so that you can distribute them in the way you want, as opposed to laying them as you go along.

I found it helpful to cut my larger pieces of vinyl into strips for this, so I could make angular shapes with one or two cuts! The images show how I cut out a strip of vinyl, I basically peeled back a little bit of vinyl from the strip and cut from there. I then took what I just cut out and placed it on a wax paper/vinyl backing.

I used the vinyl backing to hold on to my shapes once I cut them out. I did this for all of my colors. Don't worry about getting them all cut out right now, I just estimated how much I would need to start, and when I ran out I just filled it in with more shapes that I cut out later.

The actual cutting of the shapes is up to you! You can do larger pieces, smaller pieces, or a mix (sort of like what I did). I found the smaller ones to be trickier since I was using my hands to move them around. If you want to work with smaller pieces, I would definitely recommend using some tweezers!

Once you've gotten enough (to your liking) you can start placing them on the frame!

Step 2: Place Them on the Frame

For this step, I would definitely recommend working color by color. I knew I wanted red and blue in the corners, so I started with those to see how much I had. I didn't place the shapes down in any particular way, just where I felt they would fit. I did my best to keep consistent spacing, but since these aren't pre-measured or anything I just accepted that they were gonna go wherever they fit. It still looks pretty good if I do say so myself!

In the images you can see I started with red, and then with blue. I took a pause there to cut a bit more out of each of those colors since I wanted a bit more before I started putting down the yellow. Once I was satisfied with that, I placed the yellow down and finished up!

Step 3: Enjoy!

Once you have finished placing the vinyl, you are ready to enjoy your new(ly decorated) frame! I hope you enjoy working on the project! I liked the look so much I did it twice, the second time with pure red.