They’re the duo who fuses modern and vintage styles with playful sophistication: they’re Rob Blackard and Bob Beidleman, founders of the Rob & Bob Studio, and we’re thrilled to have them return to our Meet the Maker series. (If you missed our first post, you can check it out here). Continuing their mission of creating art that inspires, they showed us some of their recent favorite projects that share the common theme of incorporating fabulous fonts.

Thanks so much for joining us again. Let’s get right to it: please tell us about your fonts.
There are some fun fonts our there for sure, but to get all the functionality and precision from Cricut, you really need a font designed from inception to be used with a cutting machine. We really enjoy the process of creating original fonts for Cricut. It's much more of a creative challenge than doing a normal font. We have to not only make sure it looks great, but it also has to be cut able at various sizes and offer stenciling for certain characters. Most importantly, it needs to write using Cricut's unique Draw feature, which is one of our favorite Cricut Explore highlights. To be able to write fonts in a smooth, natural looking way with a single pen stroke is really amazing and something we work very hard on.

Before we talk about specific projects, can you bring us up to speed with what you’ve been doing since your spring Meet the Maker article?
Like a lot of people, we've been balancing work, family time and having some summer fun in the sun. In addition to creating these new font projects for Cricut, we completed a new fabric collection that should be out early next year. We’ve also been developing our online art-print website and even been consulting on the redesign of a small mountain resort. That's what we love so much about creativity: it often leads somewhere unexpected and exciting!

Did your “fun in the sun” contribute to your Sail Away with Me project?
Yes! We were in Laguna Beach at the time we created it. We were really inspired by the ocean and beautiful coastal setting. From this, we knew we wanted to incorporate watery washes of blue and turquoise into the project. Our Sail Away Font, with its letters that flow into each letter like waves, and the dreamy phrase seemed to work perfectly together. Each time we look at the finished project it transports us back to the beach!

What materials are needed to make this nautical charmer?

• Cricut Explore Air^™ with Design Space
• Blue, aqua and dark blue acrylic paint
• 11x17” watercolor paper
• 10” wood embroidery hoop
• Dark blue cardstock
• Silver foil paper
• Silver ribbon or cord
• Rubber cement or glue gun
• Sail Away Font

Tell us about your next font project, a sweet DIY paper craft.
The witty wordplay in these next two projects really showcase many of the options found in our Market Street Fonts cartridge. This deliciously adorable card and matching sprinkle envelope will make anyone’s birthday a happy one!

In addition to a Cricut, what materials are needed?

• Gold foil paper
• Turquoise cardstock
• Neon pink cardstock
• Neon yellow cardstock
• Brown or craft cardstock
• White cardstock
• Pale pink cardstock
• Cricut black fine point pen
• Rubber cement or your favorite adhesive

Tell us a bit about the next project.
We call it “My Wine Club,” and we love it because it adds a touch of cheeky humor to your kitchen or dining room. We should add that we found it helpful to watch a few videos on how to use Cricut vinyl before we started.

What materials do we need?

This list is pretty short:

• Cricut white vinyl
• Cricut transfer tape
• Framed chalkboard sign

Can you take us through your process?

Yes, we broke it down into three main areas: cutting, preparation and application.

Cutting:

• Place vinyl (liner side down) onto Cricut Light Grip cutting mat.
• Select images and size and load mat into the machine.
• Set the material dial to Vinyl.
• Press Cut.

Preparation:

• Remove the negative pieces from each of the images using the Weeder found in the Cricut Tool Kit, leaving the liner intact. This process is known as “weeding.”
• Remove the transfer tape liner.
• Gently place the transfer tape (adhesive side down) over the images. To prevent bubbles, start in the center and move out toward the edges. Use a craft stick or the scraper found in the Cricut tool kit to burnish (rub or polish) the tape onto the vinyl.
• Peel away the vinyl liner at a 45-degree angle. If the vinyl does not separate from the liner, simply burnish the transfer tape onto the vinyl and peel away again.

Application:

• Make sure your project surface is clean and dry.
• Carefully place the transfer tape with vinyl images onto your surface how you would like them to appear.
• Now burnish transfer tape onto the surface, starting in the center and moving out toward the edges.
• Use a craft stick or Cricut scraper.
• Peel away the transfer tape from the vinyl at a 45-degree angle. If the vinyl images stick to the transfer tape, simply burnish the transfer tape onto the vinyl and peel away again.

And finally, tell us about your Sweet Dreams Banner and Sprout Font.
We couldn’t think of a better way to show off our new Sprout Font than this fresh and simple banner. When we were first thinking about the project, our niece had just moved into her first "big girl" bedroom, and she loves sparkle. We created the banner to go above her bed, and it was so easy to assemble. She put the banner together herself and was so proud of it!  

What’s on the materials list?

• Silver glitter cardstock
• Pewter glitter cardstock
• Small-to-medium sized brads in gold or silver
• Rob & Bob’s Sprout Font

Thank you so much for this amazing collection of projects.
We were happy to do it. These ones are special to us because they brought a smile or giggle to everyone we showed them to. After all, having fun with these fonts is the whole point!