Welcome to Day 13 of my 25 days of Craftmas series! Today, I’m sharing this super cute letter to Santa Sign. This project is so cute because you can personalize it with your own name and address. How fun is that? This is another easy project and is made with supplies you probably already have on hand. Read on for the full tutorial.This post contains affiliate links for your convenience (which means if you make a purchase after clicking a link I will earn a small commission but it won’t cost you a penny more)!  Read my full disclosure policy.

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 Letter to Santa. It will either be listed under the Christmas category-25 Days of Craftmas 2019 – Day 13.

STEP 2: PREPARE WOOD SIGN

Cut your wood to size and lightly sand it.

Brush off any sawdust and then paint the sign white. You’ll probably need a couple of coats.

STEP 3: PREPARE THE VINYL DESIGN

While the paint is drying, open the design in your software program. Delete the original return address text and add your own. You might need to ungroup the design before you can delete.  Then, resize the design to fit on your sign. The size of my wood is 11.5″ x 7.25″, so I sized my design to about 11.5″ wide. Then, I added a rectangle around the design to create a stencil.

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

I used Oracal 651 for the stencil because I have lots of it to use up, but you can also use Stencil Vinyl or Oracal 631.

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.

Cut a piece of transfer tape a little larger than the design.  Place the vinyl on the transfer tape.

Use an application tool to rub over the design. Then, trim off the excess transfer tape.

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.

STEP 3: APPLY VINYL TO THE WOOD SIGN

Once the sign is completely dry, place the vinyl on it. Match up the straight edges of the stencil with the straight edge of the wood.

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

Carefully pull off the transfer tape and rub over the design a few more times with a 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 colored paint.

Once the white paint is dry to the touch, fill in the stencil with the colored paints.