Welcome to day 24 of my 25 days of Craftmas series. Today, I’m showing you how to make this cute framed wood sign for Christmas. Framed signs are so popular right now, but they can be expensive to purchase.  If you’re lucky enough to own a cutting machine, you can make your own framed sign for just a fraction of the cost.  Read on for the full tutorial.

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HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED

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 called St Nicks Bed & Breakfast BA1830. It will be listed under the Craftmas 2021 Category-Day 24.

 

STEP 2: CUT AND TAPE VINYL DESIGN

Open the design in your software program.  I resized the design to about 17″ x 10.5″

Draw a rectangle around the design that is 18″ x 11.5″ to create a stencil.  I used Oracal 651 in black for the stencil, but you can use any color of vinyl.

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 want to pull the letters and shapes out from inside the rectangle.

Use your weeding tool to help pull out the vinyl pieces.

Cut a piece of transfer tape and place it sticky side up on your surface. Then place the vinyl on top of the transfer tape and smooth it down.

Rub over the design firmly with your scraper tool.

Then, trim off the excess transfer tape and vinyl backing.

Now that the vinyl is ready to go, let’s work on the sign.

STEP 3: PREPARE WOOD FOR THE SIGN

For the frame, you’ll need 4 pieces of wood (2 – 18″ pieces & 2 pieces that are the height of your wood plus 1.5″ – so for my sign that measures 11.25″ tall, I cut them to 12.75″).

Start by painting all the strips red. You’ll want to paint the fronts, sides, and backs of all the pieces and you’ll probably need to do 2 coats.

Once they’re dry, lightly sand the edges and surfaces on all the pieces.

Next, mix some black paint in some water and mix it up. brush the mixture onto one of your wood strips.

Let it sit for just a few seconds and then wipe it off with a paper towel. There should be a little black paint left on the wood, just enough to darken the paint and give the strips a bit of depth.

Repeat with all the pieces.

For the sign, I used a piece of pine that measures about 11.25″ x 18″. Sand over the entire piece of wood until it is nice and smooth. Then, you can paint it white. You’ll probably need to do 2-3 coats on the front. Painting the back is optional, but I like to do just one quick coat to make it look nice and finished. Allow the white paint plenty of time to dry.

Once the paint is dry, it’s time to apply the vinyl stencil. Place the vinyl so it’s facing down, and then pull off the vinyl backing. I like to do it this way so the vinyl doesn’t curl.

Now, place the vinyl on the piece of wood. Match up the straight edges of the stencil with the straight edges of the wood.

Once it’s in place, use a scraper and rub over the entire design.

Carefully pull off the transfer tape.  There are a lot of small pieces that can come up with the transfer tape.  Just go slow and use your fingers to hold those pieces in place.

Once the transfer tape is off, rub over the design again with your scraper.

 

STEP 4: FILL IN THE STENCIL

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 black paint.

Once the white paint is dry to the touch, you can fill in the stencil with black and red paint. You’ll probably need to do two coats to cover up the white paint underneath.

Once the paint is dry to the touch, you can carefully pull off the vinyl stencil.

You can use a weeding tool or craft knife to pull out the centers of the letters. If there’s any bleeding, you can touch it up with a small paintbrush.

If you want to hang the sign, you can flip it over and attach a sawtooth hanger to the back.

STEP 5: ADD FINISHING TOUCHES

Once the paint is dry, you can lightly sand the entire sign. You’ll want to remove just a little bit of the colored paint. Then, brush off all the dust.

Next, we’re going to add the frame. I like to place the sign on some scrap wood to raise it up a bit.

First, you’ll attach the top and bottom pieces of the frame to the sign. You can use a hammer and nails or a brad nailer.

Then, you can attach the two sides.

And that’s all there is to it – this project is finished!

Did you enjoy this post? Help spread the word!  Share this post on your favorite Pinterest board.  Thanks!

Want to make your own? Get the free cut file for this project in the resource library

 

 

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