HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED
- Wood for Sign (Mine measured approx. 7.25″ x 11.5″)
- Vinyl (Color doesn’t Matter)
- Application Tool
- Transfer Tape
- Acrylic Paint & Brushes (White, Red, Green, & Black)
- Ink Pad (Optional)
- Spray Protective Finish (Optional)
- Weeding Tool
- 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 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.
STEP 5: REMOVE THE VINYL STENCIL
Once the paint is dry to the touch, carefully pull off the stencil.
You can use a weeding tool to pull out the centers of the letters. If there’s any bleeding, you can touch it up with a small paint brush.
STEP 6: DISTRESS THE SIGN
The sign looks great at this point, you can leave it as or you can distress it.
Start by light sanding off the colored paint.
Next, dip cheap bristle brush in black paint and wipe most of the paint off. Then, lightly drag the brush across the sign. We’re going for light streaks across the sign, so just let the bristles barely touch the surface of the wood.
This last step is to ink the edges. Take a black ink pad and brush it along the edge of the sign. Repeat on all 4 sides.
To prevent the ink from smearing, lightly spray your sign with a coat of protective finish.
Isn’t it fun? I love that you can put your family name and address on it. This would make a super cute gift for friends and family.
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Want to make your own? Get the free cut file for this project in the resource library