Personalized Monograms on Marble

I think I have found my "go to" Christmas gift for the year.

Paper Pastimes has this amazing tutorial on how to split letters using the SCAL2 program for the Cricut. Denise is so kind to share a video she created clearly describing the few steps (literally 5 minutes)  needed to create these beautiful initials. For those of you don't want to take the time to do this, Denise has actually spent the time and done this with the entire alphabet. She will email the files to you for an extremely reasonable price of $5. You can't beat that!

After seeing what Denise created, I knew I had to make these for everyone! Aunts, kids' teachers....oh the possibilities are endless. I thought these would be great gifts if I made them on an 8x8 inch marble tile. After heading to HomeDepot and Lowes, I could only find 6x6 inch marble tiles. So that is what I will have to work with (for now) until I can find my dream size.

I am not going to do a tutorial because Paper Pastimes does it so well. So please head over and watch Denise's step by step video. For those of you with SCAL, be sure to look around her site, she has great tips, ideas and template. What a wonderful resource!

I purchased the 4 - 6x6 inch tiles at Lowes for under $6 and the Cricut vinyl at Walmart for $10. I calculated I can make 8 tiles with the one Cricut vinyl package. If I had found black contact paper (for $1) I would be using it...but this seems to be impossible to find now.

Here are the tiles I used. Be sure to give them a quick clean to make sure the dust is off them.

 Another trick I learned from Paper Pastime is to mark the halfway points on the 4 sides of your tile/paper etc. when transferring vinyl.

Then mark the halfway points on the transfer paper/painters tape over the image. This allows you to easily line up the vinyl and you don't have to struggle to get it straight! Goodness...Denise is a genius.

 Secure the vinyl as you remove the transfer paper. And you are done!

 Since this is not going to be a coaster or be handled much, I am not going put a sealant on the tile.

 

 I had a Dollar Store plate holder that I used to stand the tile up and finish it off.

Isn't this amazing for the price. $1.50 for the tile, $1.50 for the vinyl, and $1 for the stand. $4 for a great, personalize gift.

Note: I think for my kids teachers, I will put their last name in the middle instead of first names.

I love it! Thank you again to Denise at Paper Pastime!