Today, I want to show you how to get a pop of color on your wood signs with this little technique. This technique will help you get a layered look on your signs. I created this free Cardinals Appear When Angels Are Near design so you can give it a try on your own.
Prepping the Design
I cut this design out using my favorite Oramask 813 on my Silhouette Cameo cutter. After it was cut, I weeded the design. I’ve mentioned before how beautifully the Oramask 813 weeds. You’ll notice there are lots of tiny cuts in the birch trees and these came out so easily with the Oramask. With regular vinyl, I would have to pull and stretch and use a pair of tweezers to get those tiny pieces out. Not so with the Oramask!
For this sign, I again used the Con-tact Paper instead of transfer paper as I mentioned in an earlier blog post.
I’m really enjoying the ease of using the Con-tact paper when applying the stencil mask to my boards. It just goes on so nicely! And it comes up like a dream!
How to get a pop of color on your wood signs
After painting the stencil like I normally do, I peeled off the stencil. Of all the steps in making signs, this step is right up there with weeding as the part I love the most!
In this design, I did something a little different. There are two files in this design. One for the main part of the board and one separate file for these three little cardinals. You’ll have to resize them to the size you wish. This is easy to do in Silhouette Design Studio. I’m sure it’s just as easy in the Cricut equivalent. I cut them out on my Silhouette and then cut them into three individual cardinals. These will help to give our sign a pop of color and give it a layered look.
I could have just added them in directly to the design, but I wanted them to really stand out against the white birch trees.
So here’s the technique I want to show you how to give your wood signs a pop of color. After I decided on the perfect placement of my cardinals, I proceeded to paint them red. My red chalk paint had more of a brownish tint to it . This wasn’t the look I was going for. Cardinals, after all, are BRIGHT RED! So my ever-resourceful daughter suggested we break out the red fingernail polish. That sounded like a great idea! We applied it with a cotton swab.
We waited a little bit longer for the fingernail polish to dry than we would with chalk paint. The composition of those two is completely different. I knew if we removed the stencil too early, the fingernail polish had the potential to “goop” all over the board. So we waited with a little more patience and restraint than we normally show.
And it turned out to be a gorgeous sign! The fingernail polish turned out to be a genius solution!
Free Cutting File
I am just absolutely THRILLED with how this sign turned out! It’s the stark contrast of the black and white and the pop of bright red of the cardinals that really catches your eye!
I’m just sure you’re going to want this cutting file so you can make your own sign. Please do give it a try using the technique I showed you here and let me know how it works for you!
The cutting file, as always, is located in my Resource Library. It’s free, but you’ll need a password to get in. Please sign up below for access to the library. Once you sign up, you’ll get an email that contains the password to the library. I love creating for you!
If you like my free designs, be sure to check out my Crafts You Cut Etsy shop for even more designs. There’s even a coupon for you to use at my Etsy store in the Resource Library.
What will you do to Craft Your Happy, today?
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