The writing on the wall

I mentioned back in October or so that I went to a home party for a company called Uppercase Living. Uppercase Living is a company that makes vinyl lettering that you can put on your walls, wood, mirrors, windows, cars...basically any flat surface. I have worked with vinyl lettering before and one of the best parts about it is the absolute ease of application. The letters are really reasonably priced and look really cool on walls.

I ordered two different phrases--one for the living room and one for Maren's room. I received them back in November but only just got around to actually putting one up. I chose the one in Maren's room, and followed the directions provided to me (even though I knew how to do it, having used vinyl lettering before). I have to say that I was terribly disappointed by the difficulty I had in putting the Uppercase Living lettering on my wall.

The way the lettering works is that there are three layers: bottom layer is the backing sheet, middle layer is the cut vinyl words which are adhesive on the back, and the top layer is also adhesive and sticks the whole thing together. To apply it, you peel off the backing layer, stick the rest of it to your wall (or whatever surface you're using) and use something like a credit card or Pampered Chef scraper to burnish the lettering onto the wall.

Well, I burnished right through the top layer of paper in a few places, and all they way through the vinyl in two others! :( The problem was that the adhesive on the top layer was far stickier than the adhesive on the back of the vinyl, so the vinyl could not separate from the top layer and stick to the wall. I have worked with vinyl from two other sources previous to this, and I've never had that problem before. I don't know if the adhesive somehow got stickier while it was languishing for two months on my desk, but I do know that I probably won't be ordering from Uppercase Living again. I want to order a long quote to go over a doorway in my house, but I'm glad I waited--I would have been tearing my hair out trying to apply it and probably would have ended up calling the consultant and asking for a refund.

Anyway, if you don' t look too close it turned out pretty cute. The print in the middle is vintage and was purchased at an antique store for Maren by my grandma. The little porcelain cherubs are a new addition and I think they may have belonged to my great-grandmother. The whole thing hangs over Maren's crib and I'm hoping that she doesn't figure out how to climb out of it anytime soon! I know it's just a matter of time but I'm crossing my fingers for a little longer...I don't know what we'll do when she isn't confined at night! Shudder.