Vinyl Stencil Subway Art

DIY

I have a confession. I tried to make this project a couple of years ago. It was actually my very first project using my Silhouette Cameo and it was an epic fail. So there!

The reason behind the huge failure was my lack of education. I was so excited to get started and whip out a super awesome project, that I didn’t even attempt to read instructions or advice. I applied all the vinyl without even using transfer paper and I applied it all, letter by letter. This made for a very crooked design outcome. On top of that, my design was very intricate with lots of numbers and words, and they all ended up looking scrambled. Needless to say, I never hung that one on the wall. However, I have been wanting one of these subway address art pieces for years… since the original fiasco. I finally decided to turn over that very piece of wood, from my original project, and make a new one. This time I simplified everything. It was actually a very easy project. If you are interested in tackling this one, let me encourage you to go for it, but use this as a guide and tutorial so your “art” won’t end up in the back of the closet floor.

I designed this entire thing using my Silhouette Cameo software. These are the 13 street names that we have lived at since we were married 21.5 years ago. Believe it not, our current address has been our address for the past 8.5 years. That really says something about how much we moved during that first decade of marriage!

As you can see in the photo above, I designed this to be the same size as my wood, which measures 20 inches by 36 inches. The Silhouette Cameo only cuts a 12 inch maximum width but I decided to set it up exactly the way I wanted and then crop out and cut each section, after it was designed.

These are my four pieces (above). My settings were using NO CUTTING MAT and each page size was set up at 12″ x 22″. I used Arial font for all of the words but I used different versions and I stretched and spaced them as well to make the art work varied. These are the exact fonts I used for each word:

Great Oaks Circle – Arial Black
Woodland Drive – Arial Narrow
Dustin Drive – Arial Rounded MT Bold
Northwood – Arial Unicode MS
Roberson Road – Arial Black
Wells Purdom Drive – Arial
West Arbor Trace – Arial Narrow
Faircrest Lane – Arial Black
Prairie Pass – Arial Unicode MS
Beatrice Lane – Arial Black
Schilling Farms Road – Arial Unicode MS
Grand Cypress Drive – Arial Black
Perdido Beach Blvd – Arial Black

This vinyl is from Happy Crafters (Affiliate – See my disclosure) and it is amazing stuff. I love the grid lines on the back – which keeps everything straight and even. This makes placing vinyl soon much easier! You’ll notice I used purple and black, only because this is only a stencil and it was extra that I had on hand.

After cutting each vinyl on the Cameo, I removed the letters, as shown in the photo below. Again, this vinyl is so easy to remove and peel. It’s a dream to work with.

After I had completely removed the letters, I carefully leveled each of the vinyls so my words would be straight. I used the old fashion way and measured with a tape measure from the top of the wood to the tops of the letters. Then, I drew a pencil line at the bottom of the vinyl.

I applied the transfer paper – again, notice the grids. This is Silhouette brand and it’s awesome too.

Using my handy card tool or a credit card, I scraped the top really well, so that it would adhere to the wood. Then I peeled it off.

And I was left with this great stencil.

I began applying paint using a stencil brush. Mind you, I removed my bangle bracelet very quickly because it was in the paint. You live, you learn.

I used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint – Pure White. I chose this paint because it’s so easy to distress and it dries really fast. If you read my blog regularly, then you know I am a huge ASCP fan.

And here is the vinyl all covered in paint.

While the paint was still wet, I removed the vinyl.

The insides of the letters were left behind.

So, I used my handy little hook and tweezer tools to remove those.

After the vinyl was completely removed, I felt like the piece was a little too perfect. So, I added my own paint lines, here and there, on the sides, using my paint stir stick (see photo below).

Then, I used my sanding block to distress and sand down the letters.

I brushed hemp oil on top of the entire piece to protect the paint and wood. I chose hemp oil because it’s very matte, which is the look I’m going for.