Anyway. Due to my lack of sleep I for sure thought I was going to be pretty much worthless all day. However, I did manage to create a really cute subway sign for my little girl's room. I LOVE IT! The colors totally go with the fabric I recently picked out for the "theme" of her bedroom (seriously though, why does there have to be a theme? Can't Thomas and I just pick out what we like and have it in there without there being some sort of theme? But that seems to be the big question. Well right after if we have a name picked out, which I understand because I always ask that question too). My biggest thing with her room is that I DO NOT want it to be ALL PINK! I see way too many girl rooms that look like someone had a five course dinner of pepto bismol and then went in there and puked all over the walls. (Just my opinion. No offense to anyone who likes the pepto puke look)
Don't get me wrong, I like pink, just not everywhere! In fact, the main color of the subway sign is pink. Only it's not that baby pink color you would think of when you think of a baby. It's more of a rock and roll pink. So I think I'm going to stop blabbing now and just get to the project!
So I totally forgot to take pictures when I first started... Then I forgot to take pictures on some of the steps throughout the project... So you are just going to have to use your fabulous imaginations! :)
And I really can't take all the credit for this one, my dear friend Danna over at Sparkle and Posey had me over and helped me create this adorable sign for my little munchkin!
Materials:
12 x 12 piece of wood
12 x 12 piece of vinyl (doesn't matter what color because you are going to be painting over it anyway)
Scissors
Two coordinating colors of acrylic paint
A Cricut cutting machine
Word collage cartridge for Cricut cutting machine
Transfer paper
Paint brushes (I used the 97 cent foam brushes from Michael's)
Mod Podge
And Patience... Lots and lots of patience!
Step 1:
Paint your piece of wood whatever color you want your words to be. In my case I painted it gray.
Step 2:
While the paint is drying, put the Word Collage cartridge into the Cricut and select any of the 12 x 12 size word collage options. I chose the baby themed one, but there are several to choose from. I was also using a Gypsie attachment with the Cricut, but it's not necessary.
Place the vinyl on the cutting mat that came with the Cricut, set the speed to medium, the pressure to max and press "cut". This is the part (well, the first part anyway) that made me want to pull my hair out. Watching the Cricut cut things is way too stressful. It gets all close to the edge and makes me think it's not going to work.
Anyway!
Step 3:
After the Cricut gets done doing its thing, you are going to want to carefully... CAREFULLY... VERY CAREFULLY... peel away the outer portion of the vinyl sticker.
You are also going to want to get all those little circle shapes out from inside your o's, b's, e's, and whatnot. Seriously though, if you didn't believe me before, listen now WORK SLOWLY! If you mess this part up you have to start all over again. I cut the excess vinyl off as I peeled it away. This did make it easier to handle.
Step 4:
After you have finally removed all of the extra vinyl, and you are done cursing yourself for starting this freaking project to begin with (I'm only kidding, it really was fun), peel the backing off of your transfer paper and stick the sticky side to the vinyl words that are left of the cutting mat. Make sure they are stuck really well.
Then peel the transfer paper off of the cutting mat and the words should now be sticking to it (sorry I don't have a picture of this part :\).
Step 5:
Take the transfer paper with the words for your sign on them and center them on your painted (and hopefully dry by now) board. If you are anything like me this will be the point where you need to start over completely because you messed up on the size of the vinyl and it doesn't actually fit onto your board... grrrrr... I'm going to say that this is the reason I don't have any pictures of this step. I was too busy doing everything over to think about taking pictures.
Make sure the words are stuck really well to your painted board and SLOWLY peel the transfer paper away. At this point your words should be stuck to your board.
Step 6:
Using the second color of paint you chose, paint the entire board. Don't forget the sides.
Then wait for it to dry and apply a second and third coat of paint depending on how dark you want it or how much of a pop you want it to have.
I got really impatient waiting for the paint to dry so I started using a blow dryer to try and speed up the process. I think it actually worked! Don't I look like I'm having a blast though?!?
Step 7:
Finally, after the paint is dry, VERY CAREFULLY!!! I seriously can't stress that enough... Very carefully peel off the vinyl letters to reveal the color you first painted the board at the beginning. (Again, I forgot to take pictures... I don't really have an excuse this time though other than the fact that I was stressing about messing this thing up)
Step 8:
Using a foam paintbrush again, I Mod Podged the entire thing to make sure the paint wouldn't peel off.
I also made sure to get the little corners that looked like they wanted to peel up first with lots of Mod Podge, and then go back over it to smooth it out.
After two coats of the Mod Podge I was finally done! I have to say, I am pretty proud of myself. I think it turned out pretty awesome! I can't wait to hang it in her room! I can't wait to show you what her room is going to look like when it is all finished. I'm pretty flipping excited about it! But, it will have to wait. Until then, here is the finished product.
And with that, I am going to bed. Hopefully my body is done being nutso and will want to sleep longer than 4 hours tonight. I don't think I can handle my 5th graders tomorrow if I don't get some sleep. They will totally walk all over me and think they are running the classroom. And let's face it, we can't have that! So... GOODNIGHT!
P.S. if there are lots of typos in this... well... I don't care!
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