Day 20 of the 24 Days of Christmas Crafting!
The goal for these 24 days is to give you ideas for hand-crafted Christmas decorations for your tree and home. Come back each day to try the next craft. 24 Days of Christmas Crafting!
You can cut this from vinyl and apply to a plaque or hand-cut it and stencil it. Either way, you can let everyone know that believing the goodness of Santa should be a part of their holiday cheer. For this project, I was able to use vinyl I get for free. I had all the colors I needed for the project.
Materials and Supplies
(This post contains affiliate links to some of the items I used in this project. It just means that you will help to support my blog if you make a purchase after clicking the links. There is no added cost to you!)
- Wood Oval – This is the same wood oval plaque that I used in my “Create” sign blog post
- Paint (to basecoat the plaque)
- Vinyl sheets in red, white, and gold
- Design from my Resource Library
Preparations
Give the wood plaque a light sanding. The pre-made wood products always need a little sanding before working with them.
The next step is to paint the wood. Vinyl prefers a smooth glossy surface. Smooth is the key, though. You can use craft paint or wall paint. More than one coat is best. I recommend that you sand the painted surface lightly before applying the final coat. That final coat can be a little watered down, too, to reduce brush marks.
Something else you can do to increase the glossiness and smoothness of the surface is to give it a spray of glossy polyurethane.
Cutting the Vinyl
This design contains registration marks to help you align the layers. The registration marks are the little squares in the corners. Make sure you include those in the cut.
Note: If you want to learn how to acquire vinyl for free, you can read my post about how to talk to a sign shop to acquire their vinyl scraps. They throw away scraps that are larger than your cutting mat.
Applying the Vinyl
Apply the red layer first. Align the registration marks to the edge of the oval plaque.
Once the red layer is applied, add the white layer. Since each layer has the exact same registration marks, lay the white squares so they lay on top of the red squares. This will make the white poofs of the Santa hat line up exactly where they need to be.
Apply the gold layer next. Again, align the registration marks.
Remove all the registration vinyl pieces.
Time to Decorate!
Your “Believe” plaque is now ready to hang and proclaim to all who enter that they should believe.
Come back each day for a new project in the 24 Days of Christmas Crafting!
You can get the patterns to all my DIY and craft projects in my Resource Library by signing up for my weekly newsletter.
Remember to pin this to your favorite holiday crafting board on Pinterest!
Other Posts About Cutting Vinyl
If you are new to cutting vinyl or just want to try some new projects, then you can click these links to try some of the things I have blogged about that use vinyl somewhere in the project such as using vinyl for a stencil or an etching mask.
- How to get Vinyl for Free (my most popular!)
- Love Your Home! …with These Easy to Make Stenciled HOME Panels
- Royally Etched and Painted Crown Bottles
- Stenciled Tudor Rose Box
- DIY “Create” Sign for Craft Room
- Stenciled NOEL Canvas Holiday Panels
- Believe! – Christmas Plaque
- Kitchen Canister Labels: Organize Your Kitchen
- Shadow Box Heart Art – You Make My Heart Soar!
- Clean and Dirty Dishwasher Magnet
- Gift Poem for the New Mom and Dad