Well, hello there and welcome back to the blog.Iit is so good to see you again and I hope you are having a fantastic day! Today is all about creating some home decor and making yourself a custom painted wood sign.
Now, if you don’t feel like designing your own sign in Silhouette studio, well you’re in luck! I have included the Silhouette cut file to make this very sign at the end of the post! So sit back, relax and enjoy making your sign!
Materials required for custom painted wood sign:
- Silhouette Cameo and Mat
- Adhesive vinyl that is removable
- PVA glue and water – or Mod Podge, and brush
- Chalk paint
- Make up sponge
- Stained wooden board – I used a piece of cheap plywood from B&Q and some rustic oak wood stain from Wilkos
- Weeding tools
- Transfer tape
A lot of people mention Oracle 315 when I was researching how to make a sign. My stash of vinyl doesn’t really have that information. So, I just tested my vinyl out by putting a piece down on a test piece of wood. I burnished it, left it for 10-15 mins and then came back to try and remove it. If it peeled off fine without ruining the stain of the wood, then I was good to go!
Optional:
- Sand paper
If your surface is not smooth you may need to sand it down. It is best to do this before your stain your board. If you don’t have a smooth surface, you increase the risk of your paint bleeding through the edges of your stencil!
Custom painted wood sign details
First of all, cut your design out on your silhouette. To cut my vinyl I used the settings as followed: Blade 1, Force 5, speed 10 and single pass. If you are designing your own sign from scratch, think about the thickness of your lines. To thin and you may have difficulty applying paint through the lines.

Once you have cut this out, you need to reverse weed the sign. By this, I mean remove the words from the backing sheet, not the vinyl surrounding the words. Apply a sheet of transfer tape over the top and make sure you burnish this well. You need to make sure the tape picks up all the inners of you letters i.e inside the e and a’s.
Once your stencil is on your transfer sheet, lay this on top of you wooden block and press down. Again, burnish this well to ensure the vinyl does not come away with the transfer tape as you remove it. It is always a good idea to burnish the edges if you stencil once more to ensure the vinyl is stuck down well. This will help reduced the possibility of the paint bleeding.
Furthermore, to prevent bleeding, apply a thing layer of watered PVA/Mod podge. When applying with your brush, make sure your move in all directions. This helps to seal the edges of the stencil to prevent bleeding from your paint in the next step.

Once the PVA layer is almost dry, start to apply your chalk paint over the stencil with your sponge. You need to do this in the lightest coverage possible, and build up the coats of paint. If you apply a heavy coat of paint straight away you will increase the chance of paint bleeding through your stencil and you wont get nice crisp lines.
After you have applied enough coats of paint, slowly and gently peel back your vinyl whilst your last layer of paint is wet. The reveal of your beautiful crisp lines is just too good to try and describe! Now sit back and admire your work!

Do you like this project? Why not pin it and save for later? It will be there for when you need it!
FREE Silhouette studio CUT FILE
Click on the file below for the free Silhouette Studio cut file use to make this sign.
*Please note this file is for personal use only. If you would like to share this file, please share the link to this blog post and not the file itself or the link to Onedrive. Please also credit Pretty Little Button.
For another sign created a silhouette machine, why not check out this post here for a baking cheat-board!
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Till next time,

*this post was NOT sponsored, requested, or paid for; I have written it because I wanted to. The information provided is based on my own personal experience. I am not an expert and I do not work for these companies.