DIY Fall Sign with Cricut Vinyl
Dive into the delightful world of autumn DIY with a project perfect for adding a touch of seasonal charm to your home: a pumpkin sign crafted with a Cricut machine. As the leaves begin to turn and the air carries that distinct crispness, there's no better time to unleash your creativity and infuse your living space with the warm hues and cozy vibes of fall.
This colorful design caught my eye, and it was perfect for a project I had in mind for a friend who adores fall. This was a free SVG from Hello Creative Family. It took a while to decide what to do with the design, but I finally opted to put it on a sign.
Materials:
Blank sign
Cricut machine
Cutting mat (if not using Smart Materials)
Permanent vinyl in various colors
Portable trimmer
Cricut tools
Transfer tape
Painter's tape
Ruler
If you don't have vinyl scraps on hand, either of these bundles would work great for this project: Rainbow Colors Bundle or Autumn Bundle.
Once I uploaded the design into Design Space and onto my canvas, I sized it to fit my blank.
The sign was made of galvanized steel and had a thin piece of wood attached to the front. I printed the design on paper to refer to when applying the vinyl layers to the sign.
A total of 7 colors were needed, and I cut them all to size with my portable trimmer. Each layer would be cut on a separate mat. I was not using Smart materials since I had plenty of vinyl scraps to use.
By checking the box in Design Space to remember material settings, I was able to keep loading the mat with each color without having to apply the material and pressure settings each time.
I loaded and cut the layers one by one. This part didn't take too long. I opted not to use registration marks to line up the layers, as that would have used a lot of extra vinyl. I would have to eyeball it.
After all layers were cut, I weeded them to prepare for application to my sign.
Since the pumpkin image had 3 elements to be layered together, I placed those together first. After I applied the orange pieces to the black background, I pulled back the transfer tape a bit to attach the stem layer.
Tip: It's a good idea to study your layers to determine the proper order of application before putting them together.
See below for the pumpkin pieces all put together. It wasn't too hard to space the layers evenly.
I used a unique process to combine the layers before placing them onto my sign. I cut a piece of vinyl backing to the size I wanted the design, so I could fit the layers onto it instead of placing them onto transfer tape upside down.
This required using transfer tape to move each layer to the extra backing and then removing the transfer tape, which was somewhat challenging. Usually, transfer tape is used to remove the vinyl from the backing, not the other way around. There may have been a better way to do this, but I couldn't think of one.
I continued to refer to my printed design to space the layers properly.
Once the entire design was put together onto the vinyl backing, I added one large piece of transfer tape over the entire design to move it to my sign.
I used thin pieces of painter's tape to mark the area I wanted it to fit into.
That made it easy to center my design. I placed the transfer tape with the design onto my sign between the taped marks.
Then I burnished the vinyl to the sign with a scraper tool and carefully removed the transfer tape and the painter's tape.
I liked the sign so much, I wanted to keep it, but the project was meant for someone else. Why does it always seem to happen that way?
I think this design would look really cute on a shirt or a mug, or it could be put on a tote bag, a pillow cover or anything else you can think of. I'm certain I will use this one again.
Are you a fan of the fall season, too? There are so many awesome projects to make for decorating your home or even for adorning yourself. What fun!
Add a little pumpkin spice to your life.
Leslie
Trick for Aligning Multiple Layers of Vinyl // Cricut Tip & Trick
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