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HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED
- 16″ Unfinished Wood Sign (I found mine at Michaels)
- Vinyl (Color doesn’t Matter)
- Paint and Brush (I used red and white acrylic paint)
- Painter’s Tape
- Red Berry Wreath
- Hot glue and gun
- Transfer Tape
- Electronic cutter (cricut explore, silhouette or other cutter)
- Cut File (available for free in my resource library)
HERE’S WHAT YOU DO
STEP 1: DOWNLOAD THE FREE SVG FILE
The first thing you’ll need to do is get the free SVG file you’ll use for this project. I keep all the SVG files I use for the projects I make in my SVG Library. These SVG files work with Cricut and Silhouette machines, as well as many others. This library is open to everyone and is free! You can access the library here. Look for the file Joy to the World. It will either be under the most recent projects/cut files or under the Christmas category-25 Days of Craftmas 2019 – Day 24.
STEP 2: PREPARE THE WOOD SIGN
Paint the inside of the frame white. You’ll probably need to do a couple of coats to completely cover the wood.
STEP 3: PREPARE THE VINYL DESIGN
While the paint is drying, open the design in your software program and resize it to fit on your sign. The size of my wood 14.5″, so I sized my design to about 13.5″ wide. Then, I added a 14.5″ square around the design to create a stencil. Since this design is bigger than most machines will cut, you’ll need to slice the design in half and cut it in two pieces.
Do you need more help with creating a vinyl stencil? Check out these posts.
How to Make a Vinyl in Cricut Design Space.
How to Make a Vinyl Stencil in Silhouette Studio
When everything is sized correctly, you can cut the stencil with your Cricut or Silhouette. Once it has finished cutting, weed away the excess vinyl. Since this is a stencil, you’ll be pulling out all the little letters. Just a warning…this part will take a while
Now, it’s time to apply the transfer tape. Cut a piece of transfer tape a little larger than your design. Then, place the design onto the transfer tape and smooth it out. Rub over the entire design with a scraper. Then, repeat with the other section.
STEP 4: APPLY VINYL TO THE WOOD SIGN
Once the white paint is dry, it’s time to apply the vinyl stencil to the wood.
On the top stencil, trim off all the excess transfer tape and vinyl backing. You’ll want to cut right up to the vinyl on the top and the side of the stencil.
Then, pull off the vinyl backing.
Position the design right up against the frame of the sign. You should be able to match up the straight edges of the vinyl with the straight edges of the frame.
Use a scraper and rub over the design again.
Then, pull off the transfer tape.
Now, repeat with the bottom section of the design. This time, when you’re cutting off the excess transfer tape, you’ll want to cut right up to the vinyl along bottom and the side of the stencil.
Once both pieces of the stencil are in place, put a piece of tape over the seam where the two stencils join together.
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STEP 5: PAINT THE SIGN
Paint a light coat of white paint over the stencil.
Why do we do this? To help prevent bleeds.
Sometimes there are small gaps between the stencil and the wood. Our hope is that the white will fill in these gaps, instead of the red paint.
Once the white paint is dry to the touch, fill in the stencil with the red paint. For this project, I used a foam dabber brush. I used an up and down motion and just did one coat of paint. Some of the letters were completely filled in and others had some white showing through. It’s kind of a distressed-looking finished without having to sand.
Once the paint is dry to the touch, pull off the vinyl stencil.
Use a weeding tool to pull out the centers of the letters. Once again, this part will take a little while.
Use some painters tape and mask off the sign. Then, paint the frame red. You’ll probably need a couple of coats for this step, too.
STEP 6: ATTACH THE WREATH
Add some hot glue on the back of the wreath. I found the wreath here.
Then, flip the wreath over and glue into place.
Add some extra hot glue where it’s needed.
It turned out so pretty! Don’t you just love it?
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I did a search on Michaels and couldn’t find the wood sign. Maybe I’ll have better luck just going in the store. Do you have any other suggestions for finding this sign? I’m looking forward to making this project.