Cricut Vinyl Chalkboard Sign Two Ways - Stencil or Decal
What started out as a sign painted over a stencil of Cricut removable vinyl turned into a sign with permanent vinyl decals instead. I love the versatility of Cricut vinyl, which can save my projects when things don't go as planned.
I found this quote, which was originally used for a children's classroom sign, which is a fantastic idea. However, I thought it would work just as well in my office at work. I love to display things with an encouraging or humorous message for others to enjoy.
Each line contained different bright colors, which I love, so I duplicated that. However, I made a mistake with the stencil and had to switch gears when I was almost done with the project. More on that later.
Materials:
Chalkboard sign
Design of choice
Cricut machine
StandardGrip cutting mat
Cricut Tools
Transfer Tape
Adhesive foam strips for hanging (optional)
Painted Sign
Removable vinyl for stencil
Mod Podge
Paint in various colors
Paint brush
Adhesive Vinyl Sign
Permanent vinyl - scrap pieces or the Rainbow Colors Bundle would work great for this project
I started by creating my design in Design Space using a font I liked, placing the text inside a rectangular template I made from the shapes menu, sizing it to fit.
I cut the stencil out of removable vinyl with my Cricut, weeded it and centered it on my chalkboard sign, using transfer tape to apply it.
I applied Mod Podge first and let it dry. This helps keep the paint from seeping under the edges of the stencil letters.
Then I painted the lines in different colors. So far so good up to this point.
What I did next was where I went wrong. I let the paint dry before removing the stencil, which I thought was correct. However, when I pulled the stencil off, some of the dried paint letters stuck to the stencil and pulled up off the sign. Dang! Unfortunately, I did not take a picture of how that looked.
I think the texture and consistency of the sign made it easy for the paint to pull off. That wouldn't necessarily happen with every stencil project.
Lesson Learned: Remove stencils while the paint is still wet.
At the time, I didn't know what I did wrong, so I decided to cut the text out of vinyl scraps instead, again using a variety of bright colors. Luckily, the rest of the paint was easily removed from the sign without leaving any residue.
Here are the materials I used for my second attempt.
Since I was using small strips of vinyl, I used my Cricut Joy to cut them out. I used both a 6.25-inch Standard Grip Mat and a 12-inch mat, depending on the length of the cuts.
After cutting and weeding all the colors of text, they were ready to be applied to my sign. I cut pieces of transfer tape in the sizes I needed for each line of text and burnished them onto the letters, removing the vinyl backing afterwards.
Once that was done, I laid them upside down and lined them up how they would be placed on the sign.
I decided to stick them all to a larger piece of transfer tape instead of trying to place each line in the correct position on the sign. I cut a piece the exact size of the inside of the frame.
Then I laid the the lines of text over the larger piece of transfer tape, placed the whole thing inside my sign and burnished it with my scraper to adhere it well.
Then all I had to do was remove the transfer tape, and I was done.
I think the sign looks just as good with vinyl as it would have with paint. The bright colors stand out so nicely on the black background.
Even though the sign has a wooden frame around it, it is quite thin and lightweight, so I was able to hang it up on my bulletin board for everyone to see. I used some two-sided adhesive foam pieces to adhere it to the board, which worked great.
And here is it hung up on my bulletin board.
Do you like to make signs to brighten someone's day? There are so many motivational quotes to choose from. If you have a Cricut and some vinyl, you can create a stencil and paint the sign or adhere the vinyl to your blank.
Be the reason someone smiles today.
Leslie
Thankful Chalkboard with Cricut Explore Air 2
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