Omg, friends, we are in it- my absolute favorite time of the year!! Fall is so beautiful, and the excitement of Halloween is fast approaching! Soon we will be buying turkeys and putting up Christmas decorations. I like it ALL! Before the hustle and bustle of the season begins, I want to prepare some decoration. Today I want to show you how to make a holiday sign with a Cricut!
Disclaimer: For your convenience, I have included affiliate links. This simply means if you click on one of the links and buy something, I may receive a small commission, but do not worry… you will not pay a dime more.
Step One for How to Make a Holiday Sign with a Cricut
I want to begin by saying we are having the most beautiful weather this weekend in Florida! It has finally cooled down and working on projects outside feels great. Remember when I painted my pallet flag? It was 100+ degrees, not even going to lie about that! I was sweating all over that board.
For step one, you need to gather your supplies. For this project, we will use:
- Piece of plywood
- Sandpaper
- Paint/stain
- Paint brushes
- Vinyl
- Cricut Explore Air, or similar vinyl cutting machine
I am loving these pieces of plywood sold by Home Depot. For just over $5, I can make two awesome signs (flipping it over and using both sides, of course)!
Because of the space needed and the sanding involved, I like to work outside for the first part of the project.
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Step Two for How to Make a Holiday Sign with a Cricut
For this step, you will sand your board. Make sure you sand the edges real well to avoid loose pieces of wood, or worse yet- splinters! One downside to working with these unfinished plywood pieces is they can generate splinters easily.
I like to sand the surface area too. I rough it up enough to help the paint or stain stick better.
Step Three for How to Make a Holiday Sign with a Cricut
For step three, I am going to stain the board. This time, I am going to make the effect of the stain blotchy, to really bring out the variations in the wood.
I use an old sock to stain the wood. Super resourceful, right?! I used Minwax Dark Walnut for the stain.
As you can see, I am using a circular motion when applying the stain. I hope that by doing this, when it dries, the color of the stain will look less even and more rustic.
After staining the wood, I let it dry in the sun for a couple hours.
Step Four for How to Make a Holiday Sign with a Cricut
Time to get out my awesome Cricut Explore Air! I love, love, love this machine. And I think it is important to share that I purchased this machine myself, this summer, through Home Shopping Network. It is true that I am now an affiliate for Cricut, but that is only after I fell in love with product as a consumer!
I bought my first Cricut in 2010 to make things to decorate my classroom. I bought it used, off eBay, and used the heck out of it and it still works! Love these machines.
I created the stencil for my sign using Cricut Design Space. Once the design is set, I cut it onto vinyl.
During this step, you want to make all of the cuts for your sign using the vinyl.
I used the font Amarillo for my sign, “Baby It’s Cold Outside!”. I made the word Cold slightly larger than the other words. Amarillo is an awesome cursive font, but it does not come with Cricut Design Space. I went to https://www.dafont.com/ and downloaded it to my computer for free! Once downloaded, it automatically loaded in Cricut Design Space. Sweet score, right?!
Step Five for How to Make a Holiday Sign with a Cricut
For step five, you will lay the vinyl stencil on the board. This can be a tricky step, but be patient. You can easily move anything you do not like later on. The most challenging part is keeping the stencil from sticking to itself! Moving it around to get it straight takes practice, but you will get there. Remember, this is your project and you can make it as unique as you like!
Step Six for How to Make a Holiday Sign with a Cricut
For step six, you get to paint your design! Press down on the stencil to really seal the stencil to the wood before painting. I use crafters paint, and I make sure the brush is covered but not drenched in paint.
I used three coats of white paint on all of the letters and each of the snowflakes, allowing each coat to dry before applying the next.
Step Seven for How to Paint a Holiday Sign with a Cricut
For this final step, you will remove the stencil and enjoy your sign! Be careful as you remove the stencil to not get any of the wet paint on the sign. It helps if you pull the stencil away from the sign as you lift it.
This part is my favorite- you get to see the reward for your hard work!
So this sign is not styled in any way simply because I do not have my holiday decor out yet! It will make its debut soon, my friends- very soon! I promise to update this post with a current picture once I have it on display for Christmas!
I made two signs, actually. When I use the vinyl cutouts as a stencil, I end up throwing away the actual letters. This time, I decided not to waste the letters and use them on a second sign! This sign I did not stain either- I painted it red. Not a solid red, kind of a blotchy red. Once I had the letters arranged, I painted solid white over the letters, leaving the edges kind of wispy. I love the final result:
Are you beginning to prepare for Christmas? What type of preparations are you doing for the upcoming season? Be sure to check back on Monday as I share some cute holiday cards I made this weekend! Here is a sneak peek:
Also, be sure to check out these holiday posts:
How to Create a Hot Cocoa Bar for the Holidays
See you soon, friends!