Saturday, January 6, 2018

Snowflake Lovin' It Vinyl Plaque

Winter sports fanatics and romantics love it!)
(Commuters and shovel-ers hate it!)
Either way, here is a vinyl design that celebrates SNOW!
Circular design fits on an 8.5" round plaque - 
or other foundation as desired. 
Intricate snowflake is focal point, with words ring 
that expresses "Snow" & "Lovin' It" with 
snowflake and dot cluster between segments. 
(Cut file includes a dot-for-cluster substitute version 
for simpler stencil painting.) 
Cut as vinyl decor, or use as "reverse stencil" 
to paint design and background as contrasting colors. 

This tutorial will explain the "reverse stenciling" process,
in which vinyl is cut and applied to project surface,
then a "seal" coat virtually eliminates over-paint bleed thru,
with vinyl removed completely for paint-only finish.

ASSEMBLY: 1. Prepare and cut the vinyl design.
2. Weed the non-design portions of the vinyl
from the carrier sheet, leaving the words ring,
snowflake design, and . . . 
. . . positioning guide ring in place.
3. Follow customary procedures to apply
transfer paper to the vinyl design.
4. Remove the carrier sheet, leaving
the vinyl design on the sticky side of
the transfer sheet.
5. The sample project is composed of a 8.5" mdf disc,
composed in a somewhat larger frame.
To make the disc appear to "float" in front of
the mounting surface, 1/4" to 3/8" shapes are
 glued in balanced positions to the disc backside.
6. Paint the disc face and edges with the paint color
that will show through as the letters in finished design.
Acrylic paint such as Delta Ceramcoat (Ivory used here).
7. Use a sanding block to lightly smooth out 
the paint and distress the surface as desired.
Allow to dry completely.
8. Prepare to position the vinyl design and
apply to the disc face surface . . . 
. . . which may more easily be accomplished
by turning the vinyl design face up on work surface,
and working to position the disc over the design
with EDGES of disc WITHIN the guide ring.
NOTE: If using a larger size disc or different shape,
etc., you may wish to leave the guide ring off
the prepared vinyl transfer; use cutting machine
software tools to change the ring's size to match;
trace the disc or other shape, then position
the trimmed transfer vinyl unit paper backside
over trimmed-to-size tracing to use as guide, etc.
9. Once positioned, use squeegee tool to
burnish the vinyl to help it adhere to disc.
10. Carefully peel away the transfer sheet
and guide ring, leaving only actual vinyl design
on disc.
Here is the model at this point in assembly.
11. To help prevent bleed of top contrast paint coat,
paint a light coat of the letter show-thru paint
over the entire face, including vinyl, and disc
side edges if not previously painted. 
Allow to dry completely.
12. Paint over the plaque surface with
the final color. (The sample disc has a white
side edge - masking of that edge does not
show in this image.) A single thorough 
but not too thick coat
of paint may be better than two coats.
Allow to dry completely.
13. Use tools and fingers to lift and peel the
vinyl away. NOTE that this will take more time
and patience than the regular peeling of vinyl.
14. If desired, lightly sand the final coat
to give the surface a distressed look.
15. Mount the disc in frame, or complete
other mounting arrangements.
Here again is the finished project.



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