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Christmas Cards Hanger Tutorial & Free Stencil


Christmas Cards Hanger-Doin' It All blog

I needed a place to hang Christmas cards, so I went on Pinterest to see what others have done, and fell in love with the painted wooden signs I saw, but I did not like the prices I was seeing. I could do the same thing for way less, time for a DIY!

Christmas Cards Hanger - Doin' It All blog
 

Materials You’ll need:

To make my Stencil:

  • Removable Indoor Vinyl (Oracle 631) - I purchased mine by the roll, on sale ;-)

  • Transfer Tape (I used the paper kind, you can also use clear contact paper, but I find that harder to use)

  • Cricut Explore Machine (or a Silhouette)

  • Painters Tape is helpful, but not required if you are careful

  • Weeding Tool or Xacto Knife

  • Tweezers (also helpful)

  • Scrapper / Burnisher (can use an old credit card)

  • Scissors or Xacto Knife & cork back metal ruler

 

Step 1: Base Paint

If your board isn’t prepped (smooth) when you purchase it, Sand your board, use a tack cloth to get all the sawdust off

Paint your board the base color, I use a small sponge roller brush

Let dry completely

Step 2: Design and Cut the Stencil.

I use Illustrator to create my custom designs. I used 2 versions of the same font.

Font: Fonjava (free download www.dafont.com)

You can download the FREE stencil, for personal use only, below:

PDF file if you are going to hand cut it out

Be sure to cut the stencil on removable indoor vinyl (Oracle 631), which is not permanent, and cut it as close to the size of your board as you can.

Step 3: Apply stencil using the hinge method

Apply transfer tape to the vinyl stencil

Trim excess transfer tape to the stencil outline (I use a metal ruler and Xacto for this, but scissors work just fine as well)

Center on the board, use painters tape to keep in place. I use the method Sweet Pea Woodworking and Decor illustrates: https://youtu.be/PguGOkVtN1I

Pull off backing & adhere vinyl stencil to wood board

Cover any parts of the exposed board with painters tape

Step 4: Base Coat to prevent Bleeding

This step is very important! Using the same color as the base paint, and your flat craft brush, paint over your stencil, really work the paint in every direction & let dry completely.

Step 5: Paint the Letter Colors

Using the Letter color and the flat craft brush, paint over the stencil 1 coat and let dry completely before painting a 2nd coat. I suggest letting it dry overnight.

Tip: don’t do more than 2 coats, it can create a ‘too thick’ edge of paint and create other problems too.

Step 6: Carefully remove the stencil

Working from the opposite corner upside down, slowly pull/wiggle the stencil up, back and off… its hard to describe, maybe I should make a video...?

Using the tweezers, pull the interior letter pieces, like the inside of e’s and a’s, being careful not to damage the base paint.

Touch up any areas where you damaged the base paint ;-)

Step 7: Attach the string

Cut the jute string / twine / string and ‘seal’ the end… I glued the ends or used a lighter, depending on the material.

I did 4 strings 60” long each (you can of course do any number and length you want)

Space them evenly along your board and mark the spots with a pencil on the back

Loop the string and staple

Then tie a shorter piece of string between the 2 hooks to hang (I measured mine so that it would just hand above the board, using the command hook as my guide). Be sure to double knot the string so it doesn’t fall!

Step 8: Final Touches

Add the mini clothes pins and hang using the clear command hook on your wall.

Feel free to add bows or ribbon

 

That’s it!

Please post pics of your projects, I would really love to see!

And I hope this helps you as you are Doin’ It All!

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