Creating a nursery is no easy task, but when I set out on this adventure, I just knew that I wanted some personal, handmade pieces in there to represent the love that I have for our twin boys!

We spend a lot of time at national parks and doing other outdoor activities and I thought the bathroom signs would fit into the space quite well, especially over their changing table (my husband actually liked the idea of these hanging just outside of their door to the nursery, which I thought was a great idea as well.)

This project is very easy. In fact, this is the first thing I created with my Silhouette Cameo® 3! This is a family-friendly project that parents can start, and then the kids can do the painting portion of the process.

Supplies Needed:

Step One: Creating Your Design

  1. Open up Silhouette Studio®.
  2. After finding the design that I wanted, I imported it to Silhouette Studio® to size and cut the stencil.
    • Ungroup the man and woman shapes.
    • Delete the shape you don’t want to use.
    • Draw a square with rounded corners and center it around the design.
    • Group the design and the box.
  3. Size the design the appropriate size for your project. I knew that I was using a 7 in. x 7 in. board, so I sized it to 6 in. x 6 in. to leave some room around the edges.
    • Click “Trace”.
    • Select the area of your design.
    • Choose “Solid Fill”.
    • Click “Trace”.
    • Drag original design away from the traced design and just press “delete”.

Once you’ve completed the delete step, your screen should show just the red traced cut line, this is where your CAMEO will cut out your design!

Step Two: Cutting the Design

When moving to the cutting step, I chose glossy vinyl because I was using Oracle 651 Glossy. Since I was a first time user of this machine, I didn’t use a cutting mat, which went over just fine for this project, but I do use a cutting mat for designs that have more detail. When unloading your vinyl, you’ll be able to see that you now have a stencil!

  1. Load the vinyl into machine without the cutting mat with the glossy side up. You could also use stencil vinyl or stencil paper here.
  2. In Silhouette Studio®, select the Send tab in the upper right hand corner. Choose the correct material type and which blade you are using.
  3. Select Send to initiate cutting.
  4. Once the image is cut, select Unload on your machine and remove the heat transfer from the machine.
  5. Remove the adhesive back of the vinyl, I used the Silhouette hook tool to get the peeling started.

Step Three: Applying the Vinyl to the Board

  1. Remove the adhesive back of the vinyl. I used the Silhouette Hook tool to get the peeling started.
  2. Apply the vinyl to the wood. This is important: If your wood has ridges in it like mine, you will be just fine with peeling it away. For projects with smooth surfaces, I wouldn’t suggest a permanent vinyl. I would use a stencil (cardstock would work too!) and tape the design to the wood instead.

Step Four: Painting the Board

  1. I was after a “perfectly imperfect” subtle paint job with this project, so I chose a foam brush. I dipped the brush into the paint and then wiped away the excess. When painting, I used light strokes so that the wood grain would still show through for a worn look.
  2. I then waited about one minute and used the Silhouette hook tool to get started and peel away the vinyl.

The reveal process was so exciting for me, and the kids loved seeing what we all created! Next time, I will definitely let them do the painting because I think they would have a lot of fun with it!

This project was very fun, and I can’t wait to create more. I can see myself creating tons of Christmas gifts and birthday presents this year! If you found this tutorial helpful, please tag me on instagram (@fivekidsplustwins) so that I can see what you’ve created!