First real shot at vinyl lettering

This craft took a little longer for me to finish than I had anticipated... actually what took the longest is getting it hung up so I could take a final picture of it. Ah well.

My inspiration for this craft came from this:

(source)

I narrowed down where it came from - Homegoods, of course, and searched at a few local locations to no avail. One of the drawbacks of Homegoods, it's a shot in the dark finding something when you REALLY want it. So I decided I was going to try making my own, with my own twist (using the same wording, though).

My idea was a mix of the Homegoods version and something like this:

I don't yet own a vinyl cutting machine such as a Cricut or a Silhouette (although I'm about to pre-order the new Silhouette Cameo!), so I contacted a friend who has a small business specializing in vinyl, sent her my idea, and asked if she could help me out. Of course she could, so I sent her the file that I made using Illustrator, for her to cut out in removable vinyl.

Chuck helped me pick out a pre-sanded unfinished pine shelf board from Lowes, and I grabbed 2 cans of spray paint - Heirloom White (off-white) and Colonial Red (almost like a barn red).

First step was to sand the board - even though it said it was already sanded, there were a few rough edges, so I took a 300-grit sandpaper on a sanding block to it and just smoothed it over. I also gave the rest of the board a light sand so it would take the primer better.

As I mentioned, the next step was primer. I used a foam roller and gave it 2 good coats of primer, letting it dry completely before moving on to my next step.

What I wanted was white letters on a red background, and so I spray painted the whole board with Heirloom White (just the front, not the sides or anything). I gave it 2-3 good even coats and let it dry completely overnight.

The next day I applied the vinyl lettering, using some tips from my friend - taping the whole piece of transfer paper down the side of the board, cutting across each line of text, and applying it 1 line at a time.

I *thought* I had it straight going across, as I was measuring the space between each line, but turns out in the end I wasn't careful enough. Unfortunately I didn't notice this till after it was on the wall... ugh.
Note to self - next time measure for each line and draw a faint pencil line for each as a guideline.

After applying all of the vinyl letters, making sure they were all attached well, I spray painted the whole board (including the sides/top/bottom) with Colonial Red, covering the vinyl letters completely and evenly.

I let this dry for a few hours, but not TOO long as I didn't want to pull the paint up with the letters when I removed them. I'm not sure I let it dry enough as the red paint smeared in a few places. I carefully pulled up each letter with my fingernails (bad idea, use tweezers!).

I then went back with a small art paint brush and a puddle of the Heirloom White and a puddle of the Colonial Red on some cardboard, and touched up any place there was a smear or where the paint leaked under the vinyl letters.

And here is the finished product! I'm really happy with it, despite the lettering being crooked the first few lines, but hey, it was my first foray and for that, I am pretty darn pleased!

(this is our breakfast nook)

I can't wait to get my own vinyl cutting machine as I have a TON more ideas like this one I'd like to try!