Vinyl Lettering Fake-Out (she: Beth)

Hey! I’m Beth, and I blog over at Free Stylin’. I’ve always had a love of looking at things in new ways and creating something out of almost nothing. I try to make my home, and the homes of my friends and family, beautiful by using things we already have on hand. My motto: make it as close to FREE as possible! 

  I am THRILLED to be a guest for Or So She Says!

The Hubs and I just celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary (yay us!), and I wanted to make something meaningful for our room. I’ve seen eleventy billion vinyl lettering signs but 1.) I wanted something a little different and 2.) I don’t have a vinyl letter machine/craft cutter thingy. So I came up with my own way to make a cute sign for us, for Free – using things around my house.

Like this:



and these:

and a couple of cans of spray paint.

As I was deciding what our sign should say, I remembered seeing others that had “Established in ….(wedding year).” We married in 1999, and, to be a little different, I decided to use the Roman Numerals for that year for our vinyl lettering fake-out. This website is where I plugged in 1999, and it spit out MCMXCIX.
“Here’s your sign.”

So I grabbed an old board that was in my garage
(it was rescued from almost going in a friend’s trashcan).

I sanded down the rough spots.

I spray painted it with my first color choice.
(This will have two colors, but you can have as
many as you feel like spraying.)

While the paint dried, it was time to make a stencil, and here’s how:

Once you’ve chosen an idea of what you want your sign to say, you’ll need to find the letters (or numbers). This part can be fun AND time consuming. I found all of the letters and numbers I’ll ever need here.
(What a collection!)

The trick for the stencils is to pick a letter that is wide enough to paint and one that is without a lot of extra scrolly bits. (I love me some scrolly, but not when you’re working with an X-acto knife!)
When you’ve chosen the letter you like best, right click it. You can adjust its size now, and I changed mine to Large.

Next, go to Print Preview to see how it looks. You may need to adjust it here, too (some of my letters were changed to 90%, others at 65%). Turning the page from Portfolio to Landscape helps as well.
Cut out the letter as much as you can and eyeball measure it (that’s a scientific term) to the board you’re using. (Because it’s probably dry by now!)

Once you’ve made it to this point, you can cut out the stencil.

Using a cutting board, lay your letter down and press
the Press’n Seal over it.
Cut the entire outline with an X-acto knife
(or really sharp scissors).

You can choose to use the positive image (on the left)
or negative image (on the right).
I used the positive image for my project.

*FYI* I have repeating letters in my Roman Numerals, and I made more than one stencil of the same letter. The Press’n Seal is only good for one take with the spray paint. Trying to reuse it would have been a nightmare, and I wouldn’t have come out on the winning side.

I lined up all my pretty letters in order
and adjusted them to my liking.
(Notice it’s my liking – not necessarily straight or perfect.)

After removing the Press’n Seal from the paper letter,
I used an old gift card to smooth out the bubbles and make sure the edges were flat.
(Notice the pencil marks? No prob. The paint will totally hide it!)

Once all the letters were in place, I bathed the whole
board with two coats of red spray paint.
(Colonial Red from Rustoleum)

Once the paint was dry, it was easy to peel off the
Press’n Seal.

(Yes, I use charcoal to hold down my paint tarp (alright, Wal-mart sacks).
I seriously use ANYTHING. ANYTHING!
Nothing in my house is safe from my projects. Nothing.)

Although the color was nice, it was on the bright side, so I toned it down with some brown craft paint diluted in water.

A little sanding roughed it up a bit.

These two steps help hide any imperfections
you don’t want.
The sanding also uncovered some of the gold paint underneath.

I sprayed one coat of polyurethane sealant
on the board to help seal it.
In order to hang the sign, I needed nail holes.
I measured the board

and, using my drill, made small holes for the nails.

As an alternative, you could super glue leftover
picture hangers to the back.

And the finished product:

And hung on the wall in our room:

Pretty cute, right?

Total project cost: FREE by using things I already had in my garage and kitchen!
By the way, the Press’n Seal people aren’t paying me to use their product. I just really really think it was one of the BEST inventions. I use it ALL.THE.TIME.

And I’m not gonna lie, I would LOVE my own craft cutter/vinyl letter thingy. Someday!
~ Beth