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How To Ruin And Save A Table With A Silhouette Stencil

I learned a lesson with this project that I will not repeat again.  I love how this Irish Blessing table top turned out but I almost ruined it using a vinyl Silhouette stencil.

Hi everyone and welcome to another month of the Silhouette challenge.  I mentioned last month in my Planner Stickers post that I learn so much from these Silhouette challenges and this month was no different.

 

I created a DIY Silhouette Stencil using my Cameo machine for this Irish Blessing Table Top. It turned out great but was almost a disaster! www.michellejdesigns.com

 

Silhouette Challenge

Each month Cat from Pocket Of Posies hosts this Silhouette Challenge and I am learning a lot from it.  It forces me to use my Silhouette.  I love my Cameo but sometimes I just don’t use it like I should.

This month’s theme is Spring Fever.  I know that St. Pats isn’t officially in Spring but it is really close.  Plus this doesn’t have to be a St. Pat’s project but it seemed fitting for this time of year.

I re-did this little telephone table back in November for my friend.  She is Irish and I have done a couple of projects for her that include an Irish theme.  One of my favorites is the piano bench but I have had this for a while and thought I should get it done for her prior to St. Pat’s this year.

Silhouette Stencil

This post includes affiliate links for your convenience.  You can read my full disclosure here.

I really learned a lesson from this challenge.  I will forever purchase the actual Silhouette stencil material instead of using the regular vinyl.  Now I have used the vinyl to make stencils before and have not had any issues.  Remember my game table and my awesome clock?  They turned out perfectly.  But for some reason…this one did not.

But let’s start at the beginning.  My friend has shown me a picture of the Irish Blessing she wanted on this table.  At first I tried to print it on decal material but that didn’t work.  So I decided to create a stencil and paint it on.  Easy enough, right?  This is what you do:

Step 1

Find the design you want and save it as a jpg or png file.  My friend had found the image she liked on google.  Now I don’t usually use google images but this was a one-time personal project and I wasn’t selling it or making extra copies or anything like that.

Step 2

Open the image in the Silhouette software program and use the trace tool to make it a cut file.  This is a nice, short video tutorial by Cheryl Spangenberg on how to do that.

 

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Step 3

After you have your image traced, size it, and group the words together if you need to to cut the image.  I needed mine to be large and take up most of the mat.  The shamrocks got in the way so I rotated it to be able to make it as large a possible.

 

I created a DIY Silhouette Stencil using my Cameo machine for this Irish Blessing Table Top. It turned out great but was almost a disaster! www.michellejdesigns.com

 

Step 4

Cut the image.  I used the regular Silhouette vinyl which turned out to be a big mistake this time.  I will show you why in a minute.

 

Step 5

Place the image on the surface to be stenciled.  My friend Heather gave me a good tip for this.  I used clear contact paper to help me place it onto the table in one piece.  Basically you weed out the pieces you want (all of the letters) then place clear contact paper over the top.  Peel it carefully from the vinyl backing.  Place it onto the table the way you want it, then peel off the clear contact paper.  It really helps to place it down all in one piece.

Use a stencil brush to paint the design.  Remember when stenciling less paint is better to avoid it bleeding under the stencil.  I always use a paper towel and wipe most of the paint off before moving to the stencil.

I ended up cutting the large shamrock out and using two smaller shamrocks instead.  It allowed me to center the design better on the table top.

 

I created a DIY Silhouette Stencil using my Cameo machine for this Irish Blessing Table Top. It turned out great but was almost a disaster! www.michellejdesigns.com

 

Step 6

Remove the Silhouette stencil to reveal your image.  This is where things started to go bad!  The Silhouette stencil was huge and it took a lot of time to remove it.  But it took some of the paint with it.  I was so bummed.  This is why I will use the actual Silhouette Stencil Material from now on.   I could have been almost done at this point but now I had a ton of touch up to do.

Also many of the little piece that go in the “O’s”, E’s”, and so on were missing so I needed to add a little white paint to those areas too.

 

I created a DIY Silhouette Stencil using my Cameo machine for this Irish Blessing Table Top. It turned out great but was almost a disaster! www.michellejdesigns.com

 

I got out the white paint and touched it up, let it dry, touched up the black paint and let it dry, then back the white and so on until it was the way I liked it.

Finishing Up

After touching up the design to my liking I sanded it a bit for a distressed look to match the rest of the table and sprayed a couple of coats of glossy finish on the top.  That helped a lot to blend in the areas that were touched up.

It turned out nice but it was a bit touch and go for a while there.  Don’t give up if you meet some challenges with your projects along the way.  Keep going until you get it fixed.  It really does pay off!  My friend LOVED it!!!!

 

I created a DIY Silhouette Stencil using my Cameo machine for this Irish Blessing Table Top. It turned out great but was almost a disaster! www.michellejdesigns.com

 

I created a DIY Silhouette Stencil using my Cameo machine for this Irish Blessing Table Top. It turned out great but was almost a disaster! www.michellejdesigns.com

 

I created a DIY Silhouette Stencil using my Cameo machine for this Irish Blessing Table Top. It turned out great but was almost a disaster! www.michellejdesigns.com

 

 

I created a DIY Silhouette Stencil using my Cameo machine for this Irish Blessing Table Top. It turned out great but was almost a disaster! www.michellejdesigns.com

 

I created a DIY Silhouette Stencil using my Cameo machine for this Irish Blessing Table Top. It turned out great but was almost a disaster! www.michellejdesigns.com

 

What do you think?  If you like it I hope you will pin it to save it for later!

 

I created a DIY Silhouette Stencil using my Cameo machine for this Irish Blessing Table Top. It turned out great but was almost a disaster! www.michellejdesigns.com

 

Don’t forget to go visit all of the other bloggers that have participated in this month’s Silhouette Challenge.  Their projects are amazing!

 

Michelle James Designs – How to Ruin and Save a Table with a Silhouette Machine

Two Purple Couches – Rustic Easter Bunny Sign

Pocketful of Posies – Plastic Easter Egg Makeover with Spring Monogram

Uncookie Cutter – Wood Slice House Marker

Rachel Theodoro – Paper Succulent Terrarium

Dwell Beautiful – Hello Spring Planter

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Thanks so much for stopping by!

Michelle

 

 

Tandy

Friday 23rd of April 2021

I know that this was posted a long time ago but I just saw it for the first time today and love it! I did a search for the Irish Blessing design without success. Is there a link that you can share, or perhaps your file? I am redoing a kitchen table right now and this would be perfect for the top.

Michelle

Friday 23rd of April 2021

Hi Tandy! Let me see if I can find anything.

Susie

Tuesday 21st of March 2017

Well, this is totally adorable. Love that stencil. Hope you had a happy, happy day. Susie from The Chelsea Project

Michelle

Tuesday 21st of March 2017

Thank you Susie. I love the way the table turned out. I wish the stencil had behaved better but it did it's job!

Rachel Teodoro

Thursday 16th of March 2017

It's beautiful! I always find that I learn something with nearly every project. You redeemed it!

Carolann

Tuesday 14th of March 2017

Michelle, this came out amazing! I'm half Irish so I really love this lol. Beautiful quote. Your work always leaves me jaw-dropped!

Michelle

Tuesday 14th of March 2017

Awww thank you for your kind words! I was very happy with the final out come but I did have my issues with this one!

Emily

Friday 10th of March 2017

I'm glad you were able to save this - it turned out beautifully! This month's challenge gave me some difficulty, too! I guess March just wants to be difficult ;)

Michelle

Saturday 11th of March 2017

I Emily! Wow March really is being difficult. I don't know why things have to go bad in a project. I should always be smooth sailing! Haha!

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