Learning: first venture into stencil use

Our first venture into trying a stencil cut from our Cricut Explore Air 2 was what I would consider a success! No one was hurt by the project, no material or goods were wasted, and the finished product and process provided us with loads of data moving forward for similar undertakings.

Ron (me) created a cut file in a vector drawing program (no, not Illustrator or Inkscape), saved the file as a .svg, uploaded it to Cricut Design Space, and cut the stencil using the standard Vinyl Stencil setting and Oramask 813 stencil film. After weeding the stencil, and applying transfer tape and burnishing well, I applied the stencil to the pre-printed blank which had a black chalkboard look. Then I coated the lettering over the stencil with a thin coat of Modge Podge®, allowed it to dry, and proceeded to use Krylon® Chalky Finish Classic White spray paint over the Modge Podge. Two light coats of paint later, with drying time in between, of course, I peeled back the stencil and voila–a plaque waiting for finishing embellishments before listing for sale.

Observations:

• Stencil material worked very well, just tacky enough, and thick enough to work with easily
• did not pull up any of the pre-printed surface
• Modge Podge sealed edges of stencil to plaque keeping bleeding to virtually non-existant
• Paint was clean and dense, and perhaps one coat might have been enough
• lighter coat might have shown of the properties of this special Chalky Finish paint better than using two coats