St Patrick's Day Signs Made with Vinyl Decals Used as Stencils Two Ways

While I was cutting the vinyl decal for last week's project on my Silhouette Cameo, I made a spare vinyl decal design (in case something went wrong). Since it was a simple design, I had the idea to try to use it as a reverse stencil (inside letters) and, if I could salvage it, a regular stencil (outside of the letters).

To start out, I needed to prep a wooden sign to be used with the letters from the decal as a reverse stencil. Since the letters will be peeled away, I needed a nice surface or color to show through. I have used a paint wash in the past, but since I found out you could use alcohol ink to dye wood different colors, I thought making it green would be appropriate and a lot of fun.

I got out a silicone craft mat to protect the table and a small container in which I could put some green alcohol ink. Then I added a bit of rubbing alcohol to thin the ink and grabbed a foam brush.

I used the foam brush to paint on the thinned green ink and then set it aside to dry for a couple of hours.

While the green sign was drying, I decided to weed and separate my vinyl decal. I got a piece of parchment paper out so that I could stick down the outside vinyl that I would normally weed and throw away.

This was tricky. I wouldn't recommend using regular glossy permanent vinyl for making intricate stencils. Even if you aren't planning on keeping both parts and can weed the letters out, handling the outside vinyl stencil is a real pain (it keeps stretching and sticking to itself), but I managed to salvage both parts since it was a simple design in two pieces with only two little bits inside the letters.

Since it was such a simple pattern, I went ahead and skipped the transfer tape for the stencil (outside vinyl), and I just folded back the parchment paper backing and stuck the edge on the second sign. I then carefully peeled the parchment paper off the design and stuck the vinyl to the wood as I went along. I ended up just placing the bubbles in thh L and K after I had peeled it off, but it worked fine (it was far less stressful than separating/weeding the vinyl).

Once the vinyl stencil was placed, I used a Scorch Marker to fill in the stencil and peeled the vinyl stencil off the sign.

Then I had my lovely assistant (husband) use the heat gun (so I could take pictures more easily) on the design. We got a new heat gun since the first time I tried using the Scorch Marker. It doesn't work a whole lot faster than my old embossing heat gun, but it does seem to be more even (less blotchy).

It takes a while to get the wood and the ink to warm up enough to start turning colors. So if you ever try one out, be patient.

After a while, it was starting to look pretty consistently burned and the first use of the vinyl as a stencil was pretty much a success! I did end up using a little piece of sandpaper to try to smooth out some of the wood fibers that were pulled up when I peeled the vinyl stencil off, but otherwise, that sign was done.

After a lunch break to let the green ink dry, I came back to my other vinyl decal (the inside letters). I applied a piece of transfer tape to make the application easier. 

I rubbed the tape onto the decal, then peeled back the paper backing, and applied it to my sign. Then I peeled the transfer tape off of the design.

Next, I grabbed some white craft paint and a foam brush.

I painted straight over the vinyl decal. I painted two coats right away as a bit of the ink was peeking through the paint after the first coat. Then I left it to dry for about an hour.

When I came back to the sign after it was completely dry, the surface had some little flecks of wood fiber that had pulled up when I peeled off the transfer tape. So I sanded the paint down and put on a very very light 3rd coat. After it was dry, I started peeling off the letters. I immediately noticed a similar issue to the little wood fibers pulling up as I peeled off the vinyl.

For the most part, the design turned out well, but in a few places, the fibers pulled up and peeled off the paint and left jagged edges.

Here's a closer look at some of the peeled-up edges.

So to make it look a bit more intentionally rustic, I gave it a light sanding and then came back in with the paint to fill in some of the peeled areas. I applied a thick layer of paint (as seen above) and then came back in with a wet brush to smooth it out.

In the end, they were both successful. They both look a bit rustic, and better from a distance than up close, but I think that's more the fault of the cheap dollar store wood signs not agreeing with having sticky things peeled off of them than anything else. But, I am really happy that I was able to get two projects out of one vinyl decal!