Metal and Vinyl Decal Valentine's Day Sign


The last time I was in Dollar Tree, they had these galvanized metal signs, so I picked up a couple and decided the heart-shaped sign needed a Valentine's Day themed decoration.


I found this free design from SVG & Me and set it up in Silhouette Studio to cut out of permanent vinyl. I sized the design and made sure it was set to vinyl settings and sent it to the machine.


I have an ancient Silhouette Cameo, but it still works perfectly for cutting vinyl (well, truthfully, it could use a fresh blade after all these years, but otherwise, it works great). I plopped a 12 x 12 sheet of permanent red vinyl onto the craft mat (yes, you can cut vinyl without the mat, but it loads into ye olde machine a bit better on the mat).


After I cut the design, I got out my metal sign and wiped it down and grabbed my weeding tool and got to work picking out the excess vinyl after the pattern had been cut.


A few swear words were uttered as I realigned letters that pulled up and remembered that the weeding is my least favorite part of these projects (and that I probably should have set the Silhouette to do two passes since the blade is old), but I managed to remove the excess and reveal the design.


Then I applied transfer tape to the decal, doing my best to line up the bottom edge and center the design so I could use the lines when applying it to the sign. Then I burnished the tape into the design to make sure it would stick. I used the plastic handle of my vinyl pick to rub the tape into the vinyl letters.


Then I peeled up the design and carefully placed it on my metal sign. Then I repeated the burnishing step to get the vinyl to stick to the sign.


Then I peeled the transfer tape off carefully and was left with my design. I was really pleased with how cute it turned out, and I'm tempted to go buy more signs at Dollar Tree. I may need to be stopped. There will be signs for every holiday and every corner of my house. But for now, I've got Valentine's Day covered.

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