Getting Started with Garfield
So, I had this idea the other day. The kitchen window looked a bit plain, you know? And I thought, who doesn’t love Garfield? Decided I’d try making one of those window cling things myself. Seemed easy enough.
First thing, I had to rummage around to find the bits I’d need. Here’s what I gathered up:
- Some clear vinyl sheet stuff – kinda like thick plastic wrap but stiffer. Found a roll leftover from another project. Could probably use clear contact paper too, maybe.
- Paints. Just grabbed my kid’s acrylic paints. Figured they’d work. Needed orange, black, white, maybe some yellow.
- A picture of Garfield. Found a good one online, simple pose, and printed it out.
- A black permanent marker.
- Scissors.
- Some white craft glue (PVA glue). Thought mixing this with the paint might make it stick better but still peel off later.
Drawing the Fat Cat
Alright, got my stuff. I spread the clear vinyl sheet flat on the table. Then I slipped the Garfield printout underneath it. Taped the edges down lightly so nothing would slide around while I worked. This part’s important, otherwise, you get a wobbly cat.
Took the black permanent marker and carefully traced all the lines from the picture onto the vinyl. His outline, the stripes, face, everything. Had to go slow here. Let that black ink dry completely. Took maybe half an hour?
Painting Time
Now for the fun part. Or the messy part, depending on how you look at it. I mixed a little bit of that white glue into each blob of acrylic paint I was gonna use. Not too much, just enough to maybe make it a bit more flexible when dry.
Started filling in the colors. Big sections of orange first. Gotta stay inside the black lines, mostly. It’s like a coloring book, but on plastic. Then did his black stripes. Waited for the orange and black to get mostly dry before doing the white for his eyes and whiskers. If you paint wet colors next to each other, they just bleed together into a mess. Learned that the hard way on other stuff before.
This whole painting bit took longer than I thought. Had to let it sit and dry properly. Really dry. Like, I left it overnight just to be sure. Didn’t want to smudge all my hard work.
Finishing Up
Next morning, checked the paint. All dry and felt kinda rubbery, which was good. Grabbed the scissors and carefully cut Garfield out, following the main outline I drew earlier.
Then, went over to the kitchen window. Gave it a good clean first with some window cleaner so the cling would stick well. Then, I just peeled the vinyl Garfield shape (it didn’t have a backing, it was just the vinyl itself) and pressed it onto the glass. Started from one edge and smoothed it down with my hand to push out any air bubbles.
And bam! There he was. Garfield, stuck on the window, looking lazy as ever. The sun shines through the paint pretty nicely, actually. Looks kinda cool. Wasn’t too hard, just took a bit of patience waiting for paint to dry.
