Decorate an Ikea Bekvam Stool with Vinyl

Hi, I've finally decorated my new Ikea Bekvam Step Stool. I used water-based dye and varnish to colour and protect the wood and heat transfer vinyl (HTV) to decorate that self-assembly wooden stool. The wood products I chose were super easy to use, almost odourless, and environmentally friendly too!

I used water-based products from Littlefair, a UK company located in Darwen, Lancashire.


Materials Used

IKEA Bekvan Wooden Step Stool
Water-based Wood Dye in Beach Hut Green by Littlefair
Water-based Extra strong Matt Varnish by Littlefair
Heat Transfer Vinyl in Cream

STEP 1 - Preparing the Wood

The stool arrived planed and sanded, but unfinished. Water-based products do raise the grain a bit, so my solution was to brush a light cover of plain water onto the wood surfaces. Once they were dry I used some fine sand paper to smooth off the surface. There was no need to spend too much time and effort, I just made sure that I removed all the dust residue.


STEP 2 - Dying the Wood

My colour choice was Beach Hut Green from the the Pastel Range of Littlefair water-based wood dyes.  I applied two coats with a flat paint brush along the grain of the wood. It dries really fast, so this didn't take long at all.


STEP 3 - Varnishing the Wood

A varnished surface helps the HTV adhere, and I used the Littlefair Extra Strong varnish in the matt finish, applying one coat on all the surfaces following the grain of the wood again. On the step parts I rubbed down the surface with fine sandpaper, cleaned up the dust and then applied a second coat of varnish. Some varnishes are VERY smelly, but this product wasn't at all. A bonus was the easy clean up - the brush cleaned up beautifully in warm soapy water.


STEP 4 - Leaving the Surface to Harden

The varnished finish was touch dry within a few hours, but I left it a couple of days before applying the final decoration to make sure that it was really hard.


STEP 5 - Cutting and Applying the Decoration

I used some of the Hollyhocks designs by Nic Squirrell and cut them from heat transfer vinyl on my Silhouette Cameo. Details on how to cut and apply them, and why I chose heat transfer over regular vinyl, are over on the Silhouette UK Blog, so pop over there if you want to learn more.

I love how this turned out - so much better than the old one that I never did get around to decorating!

Pin the tutorials with these graphics ...

Tiered Ombre Cake Box Card

Hiya.   Today I'm sharing another fun greetings card from Simply Crafty SVGs.  I've used the Tiered Cake Box Card, a 3-dimensional card that folds flat for posting.


I love ombré shading, and have some seen some wonderful real cakes decorated in that style. I decided to give the cake on my card an ombré look, and also used vellum to make the plate look more like a glass cake plate.  I made a few small adjustments to the Tiered Cake Box Card design though, adding more detail to the icing using internal offsets, then adding the recipient's age with a matching offset. I describe how I did these things in a little more detail below using my Silhouette Cameo. I used a Silhouette Cameo® 3, and the Silhouette Studio Designer Edition software. However, the SVG files can be used with other desktop die cutting machines and software (details here).


Materials Used:
Pale Blue Heavyweight Smooth Cardstock
White Mediumweight Textured Cardstock
Pearlescent Vellum
Beacon 3-in-1 Adhesive
Double-sided Adhesive Tape
Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Ink Pads in Salty Ocean & Faded Jeans
Ranger Mini Ink Blending Tool
Lawn Fawn Starry Backdrops Clear Stamp
Versamark Clear Watermark Ink Pad
Wow! Ultra Fine White Embossing Powder
Embossing Heat Tool
Sizzix Tim Holtz Stripes Embossing Folder from the Harlequin & Stripes Set
Alcohol Markers for colouring the candle flames (Optional)
Silhouette Cameo


Files Used:
Simply Crafty SVGs Tiered cake Box Card

Fonts Used:
SW Swirl Dance Font



Heat Embossing the Cake
Once I'd cut out all the pieces, I stamped the two cake front pieces with Versamark ink and applied white embossing powder to provide a resist for the ink blending. It isn't necessary to stamp on the lower part of the taller piece, as only the top part shows once the card is assembled.

Coloring the Ombré Cake
I blended the lighter colour of ink (Salty Ocean) on to the top three quarters, and then blended the darker colour (Faded Jeans) to just the top edge.

Here is the before and after, (actually after, and before) showing what a difference it makes!

Vellum Cake Plate

I cut three plates from vellum as well as from the blue cardstock and then adhered them together using double-sided tape. Yes, I did trim those excess end pieces first!

This is what they look like stuck together. The tape shows through the vellum a little, but as it runs parallel with the stripes it looks like part of the pattern.

Coloring the Candles (optional)

I coloured the candles on cake background (cut from white cardstock) with Copic Markers of various colours. I followed part of this YouTube video for colours choices.  Alternatively, you could use colored card, paper, or add chalks, or colored paper.

Offsetting the Icing

To give a little more detail to the icing I made an internal offset of 0.55". I cut the offsets from the textured side of the card, and the original pieces from the smooth side.

I did the same with the swag parts, but released the path and deleted the inner-most parts, copied the original inner parts, and made a compound path with them and the new offsets (otherwise the pieces would have been too small to handle easily).

This is how the finished icing looked.

Adding an Age

You'll notice that I also added an age. It would also possible to add a small sentiment in the same way. I typed out the number (using SW Swirl Dance font from the Silhouette Design Store) and added an offset to match that of the icing. I cut the offset from white card, and the number itself from a scrap piece of ombré blended card.

I cut the number from different parts of the card and from white, and chose to use the lighter ombré version.

Assembling the Card

The card was assembled following the directions in the pdf document included with the file download. I used panels in the same colour as the card base, shading the edges lightly with the distress inks.

The card fits into a US A7 envelope.  A free envelope file is available on the site that fits perfectly (for cards up to 5" x 7").

These are the files I used. Just click on the photo to visit the item in Simply Crafty SVGs online store.




This is a great card for all sorts of occasions and goes together very easily. Wouldn't it be great for Mother's Day? I'm sure I'll be using this one again before too long!



Janet, DT Member Simply Crafty SVGs

Blog: Crafting Quine 
Instagram: @CraftingQuine



Simply Crafty SVG Files:
Tiered Cake Box Card
Basic Envelope Set (Free)

Design your own Vinyl Decal to make a Wooden House Sign

Hiya, I love using my Silhouette to make unique gifts and this week I've designed my own vinyl decal to decorate a plain wooden house blank as a gift for my daughter. All it took was a couple of fonts and a bird file from the Silhouette Design Store (and a wee bit of manipulation in the Silhouette Design software). I have a tutorial to show you how to design your own decals on the Silhouette UK Blog today.

The digital files used are:
A Little Birdie Told Me by Hero Arts (#56886)
Willow Bloom Font by Skyla Design (#235171)
LW Sketchy Font by Lori Whitlock (#76191)

A few folks have asked me where I sourced the wooden house blank from. Well, we found it in the clearance section of our local Tesco supermarket and it cost pence rather than pounds! It was already decorated, but that was soon covered over with a couple of coats of grey chalk paint.

Surprisingly, the supermarket can be a great source for craft blanks!  This coffee sign was one I re-purposed some months ago by recovering the front face with black paper. If you like the look of using white gel pens with your Silhouette there are heap of useful tips on that post too!

Have you found an unusual source for crafting materials - do share!

Print and Cut on dark cardstock with FREE card template

Hiya, today I'm sharing a card that I made a couple of weeks ago for my son's birthday. He's a Chemistry student and I thought that a card spelling out a word using some of the elements from the periodic table would be fun.

As ever, my go to designing tool is the Silhouette Studio software on my computer.  Now, it would have been possible to design the periodic element toppers using a stencil font and using the information from an image of the periodic table from the Internet as a reference.  However, as the posting date was somewhat close I opted to use the Periodic Table Genius design, to make dimensional toppers.  I arranged them onto a landscape card base with the remainder of the sentiment printed on the background using the Silhouette's Print & Cut technology.

I have posted the steps over on the Silhouette UK Blog today, with extra information on using the print and cut method.  I used 12-inch square cardstock in an intense colour, so the tutorial over there concentrates on how to adjust for a 12- inch print and cut, and a strategy to ensure that the registration marks still get picked up despite being printed on darker coloured card (it works for shiny or reflective printing surfaces too).  So head over there for details if you are a Silhouette user. Oh, and there is also a tip for making more economical use of your precious cardstock!

I ALSO have a treat for A4 card users here on Crafting Quine Blog - so don't dash away too soon! The finished card fits a DL, or business-size envelope and when folded is the size of a third of a piece of A4. I'm sharing my cutting file for the card template and you can download it here in SVG format (for Silhouette DE and above as well as other cutting software).

Download the FREE DL Card Template

I'd love to see what you make. Please tag me on social media if you use it @CraftingQuine (Facebook, Instagram, Google+).  Let me know if you find it useful and I'll endeavour to share more files in future.

Files Used: