Antique Advertising Soap Dispenser {DIY}

I love old advertising. Mostly, I love the fonts/typestyles in old advertising.

I was looking for something to dress up a plain glass bottle to make it into a soap dispenser for the bathroom (this square bottle is out of a box lot from an auction and a soap pump just happens to fit perfectly!) when I came across this graphic:

From The Graphics Fairy

I knew I had to use it. I LOVE the fonts and knew I wouldn't find anything close so I decided to find a way to use this original. My soap dispenser jar is tall and narrow so this is not the right shape at all. I needed about a 2" X 5" image.

I opened this image in my Silhouette Studio. I began by using the cut tool to cut the lines apart. Then I deleted the ones I didn't plan to use and trimmed as closely as I could to the ones I did plan to use. I re-configured the Olive Oil and English Fig to be 2 lines. I would have like to use more of the image but I didn't have space. The "Compliments of" was too small and the quality was poor so I did use a font from my computer for that. I added some 'swirlys' from my computer and grouped the whole thing together. I opened the trace tab and adjusted the settings until it was mostly the way I wanted it. Because there is a background, it picked up some dots so after I traced it, I enlarged it and used the eraser tool to remove the dots.

I cut it out of black vinyl and weeded it. Whoa, was it ever a pain to weed! Those letters were tiny! I had to use a straight pin to reposition some of them but when I had it how I liked it, I put the transfer tape over top and transferred it to my jar. Now I'm trying to decide if I want to use the clear soap or go colored. What do you think?

Now I just need to find some rusty little old keys......

For those of you with Silhouette machines, you can download the file for free here: DOWNLOAD

This is my first time trying to share a file this way so please let me know if you try it and it doesn't work.

This file is for personal use ONLY. 

Linking to:

Weekend Wrap Up Party @ Tatertots and Jello
Party Junk @ Funky Junk Interiors
Saturday Sparks @ Pieced Pastimes
That DIY Party @ DIY Showoff

From the Farmhouse