From Drab to Fab

While shopping at Ross the other day, I came across this sign in the Clearance Section:

I wasn't thrilled with the wording on it, but for $2.99 I went ahead and bought it.  I knew I could turn it into something nice using my Silhouette Cameo and some vinyl.

I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to put on my sign, so I searched around and came across Mandy's tutorial for a sign she did on her blog. I was going to make mine just like hers, but then changed my mind and decided just to put a simple saying on it. (I may still make one like hers for my nephew and his wife who just moved into their first home.)

I started by sanding all the paint off using my palm sander. Once it was paint free, I stained it with several coats of a natural wood stain and left it to dry overnight.

Next I had to decide what I wanted the sign to say and what font it should be in. I finally decided that I wanted it to say "Love Lives Here". I printed that out in brown vinyl using the font "Dancing Script." BTW, my board is 17 1/2 X 4.

I wanted to cut it as one long piece, but since it was 14 inches long, I couldn't use my cutting mat (Mandy was so nice and helped me figure out how to change my settings in the Silhouette - thanks again Mandy). Even though I slowed the speed way down, had my piece of vinyl underneath the rollers, and chose "load media" on my settings, the vinyl was still sliding around on me. I decided just to cut each word out individually and hope that I could get them on the board straight.

With the help of my trusty ruler and pencil, I marked where I wanted the words to go, then just erased the marks after I was done applying the vinyl.

Here is the finished sign hanging over my bakers rack:

For my first attempt, I think it turned out pretty good!

I still need to practice with printing out longer/larger pieces of vinyl without the cutting mat. If anyone has any suggestions/tips, I would love to hear them!

Now I'm off to Ross to buy up the rest of the boards they had :)