Hi there Expressions Blog followers. Can I tell you how excited I am to be here sharing my very first project for the Expressions Vinyl Blog?! I’m Carol, and I blog over at The Answer Is Chocolate where my creative ideas are fueled by, you guessed it…all things chocolate.

Speaking of chocolate, when I think of it, I think of France. OK I think of chocolate when I think about anything, but back to France. I have a bare wall in my bathroom that was begging for something and I’d recently downloaded an image of the Eiffel Tower in Silhouette Design Store that I was anxious to play with. I decided my bare wall needed this sign:

In order to save more money for chocolate, I often look for things to re-purpose. I found the frame at Goodwill but wanted to vintage it up a bit.

I thought I had light yellow paint but since I didn’t, I lightened up some bright yellow by adding white paint. Painted my frame with a coat of that, then dry brushed over it with white paint. Instant re-purposed shabby chic frame!

Now for the fun part! Along with my Eiffel Tower, I downloaded this fabulous laurel leaf image from the Silhouette online store:

Sized in the Silhoutte design studio software and then cut it from Metallic Silver Expressions vinyl. I love love love the metallics. Did I mention love?

Except when trying to photograph it on a sunny day. But you get the idea. I even saved the center of the laurel wreath to use on something else. Waste not, want not.

I decided I’d do our monogram, so I cut out the letter “C” and then the letters to spell “Le Bain” ( The Bath) , Paris, a flourish, and the Eiffel tower using Expressions black vinyl.

I applied all of the vinyl to the glass. What’s that behind the glass? A piece of fabric drop cloth from the HW store!

Since I was going for a shabby look, I wasn’t concerned about ironing the fabric. OK like that was going to happen anyway. HA!

Lesson learned…I should have placed the monogram over the laurel in the design software before cutting either out. You’ll learn from that right? I think this would have positioned things better but I’m still mastering my Silhouette Cameo. Guess I'll just have to make more vinyl projects :)

Now when I’m in the bath, I can pretend the bathroom is in an artist’s loft in Paris. With French chocolates. A girl can dream.