This Thanksgiving Vinyl Sign can be fit to any size board you have. The board I used was an old closet shelf that was in my garage as was 14 X 50. But the vinyl pieces are small enough to be moved around and put where you need them.
I decided to try the Dollar Store vinyl again. The red and glitter black in the sign are Dollar Store brand. I finally got the black on one letter at a time and the red was just a disaster. I will redo it but I don’t have any other permanent red vinyl so it will have to wait.
What you will need
- Different colors of Permanent Vinyl
- something to put it on
- Download File
- weeding tools
- clear contact paper
Vinyl Choices for the Thanksgiving Vinyl Sign
I had such high hopes for the Dollar Store vinyl since it worked so well on the Elmo drink cup, but alas no. It is only useful for large simple shapes. ANY cuts into the design and it fails miserably.
Cutting the Thanksgiving Vinyl Sign
I took a font called Chili Pumpkin that I got at Creative Fabrica and altered it to fill in the letters, which is harder than you think. I am working on a video to show how I did it.
There are some very intricate cuts so be careful when weeding and transferring the vinyl.
Each color should fit on a regular mat. Design Space tries to make the brown into two mats but that is easy to fix.
If you don’t know how to combine mats, you should watch my video here. I have all sorts of videos on how to do stuff like making rounded corners and splitting monograns at my YouTube Channel. Consider Subscribing!
Weeding
Once the pattern is all cut, you need to weed it. I have a Cricut Bright Pad. They are about $48 at amazon. You need some type of light source to put under the project. Before I got the Brightpad, I used a LED lamp , a bowl and a piece of glass. It wasn’t high tech but it worked. Any light pad will work. You can find others on Amazon for under $20.
Also you will need a sharp pick. I have a set from Harbor Freight that cost 2 or 3 dollars. I have just found a pinpen from 651vinyl.com that works great. While you are there look at the weeding ring. It is great! I used to stick the weeded vinyl to my hand but my skin had a reaction to the sticky. The weeding ring solved that.
Here is another trick that works well. Rub a very little bit of baby powder on the back of the vinyl. You will be able to see the lines clearly. If you do this, make sure to wipe the baby powder off with a damp rag before applying the vinyl.
Assembling the Thanksgiving Vinyl Sign
Start by laying everything out to get a general idea where it all belongs. I transferred all the parts to little pieces of transfer paper (clear contact paper), then put the paper back on and stuck them to the board with the paper still attached so I could space them. My sign has the “Happy” across the top, the characters down the left side and the “Thanksgiving” spread out down the right side in random direction. The leaves are put in between to fill spaces. I designed it to optimize the color layout. But if you fit the pieces to a different shape keep the colors next to each other in mind.
And your Thanksgiving Vinyl Sign is done!