Stenciled Lighthouse Sign

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This week I am pairing favorite books with crafts in my 3rd Annual Book Inspired Craft Week. For today's book I have chosen one that I loved when I was a little kid, Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie. I know that there was a Reading Rainbow episode of this book but I don't remember if that is where I first heard of it, or if I had already read it before seeing it here. All I remember is it being a favorite.

When I was thinking of a project that I could make to go along with this book I knew I would do something with a lighthouse but I wasn't sure exactly what to make. I decided that I wanted to make a Cricut project so I started looking at Design Space and all of the lighthouse images that they have. 

I was thinking of some sort of sign or something, then I found a set of lighthouse images- Linocut Lighthouses. As linocut images they are made to look like carved prints and that gave me the idea to turn one of those designs into a stencil so that it would look like a print. 

I used a small shadow box style small wooden sign and cut the design out of vinyl. I cut a square around it the size of inside of my sign. Then I stuck that vinyl inside and painted it, as well as the framed edge of the box. 

When I pulled the vinyl up it left the stencil design and had the same look as a printed linocut image would have. It worked perfectly for the style of design I was going for and I had a cute little lighthouse sing to go along with Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie.

How to Make a Stenciled Lighthouse Sign

You will need:

• 5"x5" square wooden shadow box
• Cricut
• adhesive vinyl
• transfer tape
• acrylic paint in desired color (I used Folkart acrylic in Navy Blue)
• paintbrushes

Instructions:

For this project I used the Linocut Nautical Lighthouses image set in Cricut Design Space, specifically image #M28ACF930

Measure the inside of the shadow box. Make a square the same size as the inside of the box. Center the design inside of that square, then slice.

Cut out that square with the image sliced out of it. 

Weed the image, being sure to weed out the lines of the original image so that you are left with the square with the image sliced out. 

Use transfer tape to place the vinyl inside of the shadow box and press down well. 

Use paint to stencil the design into the shadow box and paint the frame of the box. 

Let the paint dry, then peel up the vinyl to remove the stencil.