LEARN HOW TO MAKE BEAUTIFUL WOOD SIGNS WITH VINYL STENCILS.

I have been wanting to make this sign for so long. We have solicitors come often, and it’s really annoying when we are in the middle of school, or dinner, and then to have our bloodhound howling just adds to the annoyance. I am so happy to finally have made this and I’m putting it right by my doorbell. Have you attempted painting wood signs with vinyl stencils, but the paint bleeds through and then the wood sign is ruined? It totally sucks, and deters you from making any more. Well, I have the solution for you. Nice clean paint lines with vinyl stencils can be achieved!

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Material needed to make Wood Sign with Vinyl Stencil

Preparing Wood Sign

I prepared this wood sign at a previous date, so I don’t have pictures, but I purchased this round piece of wood at Home Depot. It is 18 inches. I sanded it nice and smooth and then applied a wood conditioner. This prevents the stain from seeping into the wood too much and make a nice even application of the stain. Once this dried, I applied my stain. Once the stain is dry, we can paint our design.

Prepare Vinyl Stencil

Prepare your design in Cricut Design Space. If you are doing this No Soliciting cut file that I am using, you need to do a little preparation before cutting. Ungroup all the layers.

Then attach groups of words together that you don’t want to be separated from each other. In this case, I attached “no soliciting”, then the next three lines of wording were attached together, “seriously” is attached to itself, and then the last three lines are attached together. In hindsight, I should have just split this in half. The top half should have been attached together, and the bottom half should have been attached together. I was trying to save vinyl, but in the end, that didn’t make sense. So cut it out how you like.

Once you have all your rows of words attached to each other, send it to cut on your Cricut. I adjusted where my words were arranged on my mat to spread them out a bit. I am using removable vinyl, do not use permanent vinyl. You could also try contact paper.

Once your vinyl is cut, it’s time to weed. You are weeding out the words. Do not weed out the middle of letters or the vinyl around the words. I had a brain fart and started weeding the outside at first and had to recut that section.

Once your vinyl is weeded, place your transfer tape on top and use a scraper tool or credit card to press hard all over the transfer tape to get the vinyl to adhere to the transfer tape.

Then peel of the paper backing slowly. If you have any parts that don’t come off the paper, rub again with the scraper tool.

Paint your wood sign

Place your vinyl stencil on your wood sign. I usually eyeball where I put my vinyl, but if you’d like to measure, go ahead and make markings so you can center everything nicely. If you have a brayer, I would use that to press the vinyl on the wood one more time. I don’t have one, so I used an empty vinyl tube.

Since I weeded my vinyl in four different sections, I put transfer tape over some of the exposed wood so I wouldn’t accidentally get paint on the wood.

Now the magic step to get nice crisp lines is to start with modpodge. Using the sponge brush, dip it into the modpodge and using an up and down motion, “paint” your words with modpodge. The modpodge will bleed under the vinyl like the paint normally would, but since it dries clear, you can’t see it.

Let the modpodge dry for at least an hour. Then using a sponge brush, do the same thing with your acrylic paint. Make sure to use an up and down motion, not a stroking motion. This helps prevent the modpodge and paint from bleeding under the vinyl stencil.

Let this dry and then paint a second layer. Once the second layer is dry, you can peel off your vinyl stencil and the middle of the letters. Do this slowly so you can check for any spots that might rip up. You will have three layers of paint on there, and sometimes it might want to peel up with the vinyl. If it starts peeling up, its useful to have a xacto knife so you can cut the paint from the edge of the vinyl. I didn’t have to do this, but sometimes it may happen.

I would let this dry for one whole day, and then seal with your preferred sealant. I am going to put this outside, so I am using a water based spar urethane that has uv protection and is made for exterior use. Let dry completely per your sealants instructions.

Don’t those lines look nice and crisp?! You can do it to!

To hang your wood sign, use eye screws and screw them into the top of the wood and thread with rope.

GET YOUR FREE NO SOLICITING VINYL STENCIL CUT FILES TO MAKE YOUR OWN IN MY RESOURCE LIBRARY.  

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