Kutz, Paper, Scissors: Welcome! Front Door Vinyl

Good Morning!

I've been in the nesting mood lately... so much so that you'd think I was pregnant but I'm NOT - this is not an announcement, no new Jessup's on the way (bummer) but after living in our home for 5 years, I guess it was time to start getting stuff on the walls, doors, floors... whatever will hold still long enough for me to paint/stick/hang/hammer something on/to it!

Our front door is pretty plain... sure, it's a nice midnight blue color but we haven't done much in the way of curb appeal to the small porch area. I've been wanting to get some hanging baskets and pot some colorful flowers, but our porch is covered in shade all the time so I've been at a loss... until I decided to use vinyl to spruce things up a little!

I'm a pretty big fan of the Beatles... I've been singing their songs to Adam since he was a newborn and now he sings them with me, so when I was trying to think of a clever welcome for our front door, I went with the obvious.

HELLO GOODBYE!!!

Here's what I did...

I measured the space on my door where I wanted my vinyl to be. I choose the bottom corner but you could easily center it on your door, at the top, along the side... wherever you like!

I then formatted my welcome sayings with my Silhouette software and once I was happy with everything, I cut my vinyl, peeled the negative vinyl away and had my greeting ready to be applied.

I prepped my door - wow, was that sucker dirty. I grabbed Pledge first, but then thought that it might leave the door too slick so I went with a multi surface spray, microfiber rag and wiped down the door on BOTH sides (since I was sticking vinyl to the inside and outside).

I used my Silhouette Transfer paper to get my saying onto the door - this stuff is great when you're transferring a word/saying/design with numerous pieces - it helps keep your design together to you can stick it to whatever surface your using.

Using your smoothing tool, rub all over the transfer paper where your design is - this will help your vinyl stick to the transfer paper, not on the vinyl backing.

Now you'll want to pull up your transfer paper and your vinyl should stick to the paper exactly like you designed it.

Position your design on your door/surface - the transfer paper is opaque so you can line your design up and position it exactly where you want it. Just remember, most of the time, once your design is down, it's DOWN. Using your smoothing tool, rub on the transfer paper all over your design so that your vinyl will stick to your surface. Rub hard and try to get the edges of your design well.

Now start peeling your transfer paper off your design. I find it works best to peel/roll the transfer paper down or across the design instead of pulling out from your design, this seems to keep your vinyl stick to your surface better.