Whomping Willow Stenciled Wooden Sign

I love helping friends with crafts, especially if there’s a theme I’m into. A neighbor is throwing a Harry Potter party and asked for some help with a few decor items and I was in. Creating a Whomping Willow stenciled wooden sign was the last one on the list to go on the tree in their front yard. I hadn’t created a stenciled sign in awhile, so was excited for a change in craft too.

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Whomping Willow Stenciled Wooden Sign

What you’ll need:

Wooden sign
Cricut Maker
Stencil vinyl
Weeder tool
Transfer paper
Scraper
White acrylic paint
Foam brush

Because I collect craft supplies, I had everything I needed to get started on the project, including a wooden sign with a twine hanger.

First, create your design in Design Space. I used a Harry Potter themed font and typed “BEWARE: Whomping Willow” then resized it to best fit my sign.

Cut your design on stencil vinyl with your machine. Reverse weed your design, aka instead of removing the excess around your design like normal vinyl projects, remove the letters / design itself. That’s where the paint will go.

Apply pieces of transfer paper on top of your design, this will help keep all the small pieces and insides of letters together as you put the vinyl on the wooden sign. Rub them with a scraper to make sure they’re on well.

Remove the paper backing of the stencil vinyl. Stick your vinyl on your wooden sign where you want it and again, rub the design down well with your scraper.

Remove the transfer paper pieces slowly, making sure the stencil vinyl stays attached to the sign. Use your brush and paint with the dabbing method (to prevent bleeding under the stencil).

Tip: You could also have applied mod podge to the stencil vinyl before the paint, but I was trying to finish this before getting in bed.. Honestly, it’s the best tip for preventing any paint bleeding under.

Slowly remove the stencil. Touch up as needed. You can also sand it to create some aging.