DIY Bless The Food Sign Using A Cricut Explore

This  DIY bless the food sign can be simply made using a Cricut cutting machine. All it takes is cutting a stencil, some paint and a large wood board. This is a fun project that will take a couple of hours to complete.

I painted my dining room about a year ago. And never placed the artwork back on the walls. I needed a fresh look.I wanted a farmhouse style wooden sign.  Do you ever get that way? You change one thing in a room and suddenly everything in that room is awful?  I thought it would be easy to find interesting and inexpensive farmhouse style pieces to hang on those bare walls. Now it’s a year later and I have found nothing. I mean  nothing I liked. If I did find something it was far more money than I wanted to pay. I am cheap  frugal.

DIY This Bless The Food Sign With A Cricut

Browsing through some of my favorite home stores I came across a sign with a Bless this food prayer on it. I loved it but not the price. So began my journey to another DIY wood art sign.

Wood art signs are one of my favorite way to decorate my home. Especially for a farmhouse look. Using the Cricut Explore to make sticker stencils is the best place to start. I found a bless the food SVG file. This site has a ton of free files. You need to check it out for lots of other great quotes to use with your Cricut or Silhouette machine.

I started with a 2ft x 2ft piece of plywood from the hardware store. Painted it black because for the farmhouse style, black lettering and white is the way to achieve this. The wood should have been sanded  because it was quite rough and made it difficult to adhere the vinyl lettering to it. So make sure you sand the wood first. Lesson learned.

Cricut Design Space

Here is a screenshot of part of the saying Bless the food in Cricut Design Space. I wanted the lettering to fill the entire  space on my sign.  Using the 12 x 24 inch cutting mat,  I cut the prayer into two parts. Each part was 12 x 24.  So together the prayer filled my entire board. This sign is the perfect size for my dining room wall.

Cricut Design Space has recently come out with a newer version. It is in Beta right now and you can download it. I have played with the new version. It is hands down so much better than the current version. This version doesn’t use Adobe Flash! I have had many problems with flash. No more. Check out the Cricut Blog for more info on all the new features.

How To Apply The Vinyl

After cutting out the lettering on my Cricut Explore using Contact paper (which is cost effective), I weeded out the lettering. Weeding is the process of removing the unwanted vinyl from your design.

I then applied transfer tape to the vinyl letters. The transfer tape picks up the letters as a whole so they can be placed on the sign without placing them individually. It takes it from the backing sheet of the vinyl and exposes the adhesive of the vinyl. It is essentially transferring the design to your intended project.

I placed the two sheets on the board and began to burnish (rubbing with a credit card with lots of pressure) them onto the wood once I was satisfied with the placement of my design. The vinyl  lettering didn’t adhere well at all. It didn’t want to stick to the wood. So I very carefully lifted off the backing from the contact paper. Some letters I had to hold onto the wood so they would stick. It is a slow process but the results are worth the effort.

Mod Podge and Chalk Paint

I then applied mod podge over the vinyl letters so there wouldn’t be any bleed through when I painted over them with white chalk paint. The last thing I wanted was paint bleeding underneath my lettering. The Mod Podge seals the vinyl stencil so no paint will seep under it. For example, when paint seeps under the vinyl, you won’t have clean and sharp lettering.

After the mod podge was dry, I painted white chalk paint over the entire board with a foam brush. Foam brushes are preferable because they don’t leave any bristles left behind.

I used this chalk paint I found on clearance at Walmart. Make sure you check out those clearance endcaps for some deals.

Apply Chalk Paint

I applied two coats of chalk paint. Make sure you let the paint dry thoroughly. If you don’t, the paint may peel off with the vinyl stickers.

Next I peeled off the vinyl stickers for my DIY Bless The Food Sign farmhouse style. This is my favorite part. It reveals the beauty of your sign.

I added 1 inch thick wood strips to the sides of the sign to frame it out.  Simply nail the strips into the sides of the sign. This was a little difficult to accomplish by myself. Thankfully, my mister did all the nailing while I held the sign. Team work. This is the finishing touch that really adds a level of distinction that gives your sign a farmhouse look.

My DIY Bless The Food  farmhouse style wooden sign now hangs in my dining room awaiting some more decor to fill the space. One step at a time. One DIY step at a time. This DIY farmhouse style wooden sign really makes my dining room inviting. Any easy DIY wooden sign project with fantastic results!