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DIY School Milestone Signs

August 18, 2020 By The Bearded Housewife 2 Comments

school milestone sign

Quick Links To Info In This Post

    • LEARN TO MAKE PHOTO WORTHY SIGNS TO COMMEMORATE THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL
    • SCHOOL MILESTONE SIGNS – MATERIALS LIST
        • STEP 1 – DOWNLOAD THE SVG CUT FILE
        • STEP 2 – UPLOAD THE SVG FILE TO CRICUT DESIGN SPACE
        • STEP 3 – MEASURE INSIDE CHALKBOARD DIMENSIONS AND SIZE ACCORDINGLY
        • STEP 4 – UNGROUP THE IMAGE
        • STEP 5 – ADD YOUR CHILD’S NAME
        • STEP 6 – PLACE YOUR CHILD’S NAME INTO THE DESIGN
        • STEP 7 – PREPARE YOUR MATS AND MAKE MATERIAL SELECTION
        • STEP 8 – LOADING YOUR MATS AND CUTTING YOUR MATERIALS
        • STEP 9 – WEED YOUR VINYL
        • STEP 10 – ASSEMBLE YOUR SIGN
        • STEP 11 – ADD YOUR CHILD’S SCHOOL INFORMATION
    • WANT THE FREE SVG FILE SO YOU MAKE THIS SCHOOL MILESTONE SIGN YOURSELF?
  • WANT MY SCHOOL MILESTONE SIGN SVG FILE? ​ IT’S IN MY RESOURCE LIBRARY! ​ GET THE PASSWORD HERE! ​

LEARN TO MAKE PHOTO WORTHY SIGNS TO COMMEMORATE THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

The school year is approaching. YAY! Make these adorable School Milestone Signs to create photo memories commemorating the start of the new year! The best part…. they are reusable!!

With so many students doing virtual or online classes, I know parents are feeling uneasy about the year. However, that doesn’t mean we should let our kids see that uneasiness, right?

In this tutorial, I’ll give you my step by step instructions and tell you what materials I think work best when making this project.

You can download the SVG file for this project at the bottom of this post.

This post contains some affiliate links (which means if you make a purchase after clicking a link, I will earn a small commission at no additional cost to you). Read my full disclosure policy here.

SCHOOL MILESTONE SIGNS – MATERIALS LIST

  • I am using the FABULOUS Cricut Maker. You could also use your Cricut Explore Air 2 !
  • Cricut StandardGrip Cutting Mat (green)
  • Vinyl. I am using Oracal 631.
  • Transfer Tape
  • Cricut Weeding Tool
  • Cricut Scraper
  • Blank Chalkboard
  • Chalk Markers or Chalk
school milestone sign

Customizable School Milestone Chalkboards

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Active Time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour
Difficulty: Easy

This tutorial will show you step by step how I made reusable chalkboards to commemorate the first day of school!

Materials

  • My FREE School Days SVG file
  • Vinyl in your choice of colors. I am using Oracal 631 Vinyl.
  • Transfer Tape
  • A blank chalkboard
  • Chalk Markers or Chalk

Tools

  • A way to cut your vinyl. I am using my FABULOUS Cricut Maker.
  • Cricut StandardGrip Cutting Mat (green)
  • Cricut Weeding Tool
  • Cricut Scraper

Instructions

STEP 1 - DOWNLOAD THE SVG CUT FILE

Download the SVG Cut file for this School Milestone Chalkboard (#25) from my FREE Resource Library. Click here to get access to the library.

STEP 2 - UPLOAD THE SVG FILE TO CRICUT DESIGN SPACE

If you aren't familiar with uploading SVG files into Design Space, take a look at my quick and easy tutorial here. If you are on your smartphone, here is my tutorial on using the Cricut App.

STEP 3 - MEASURE INSIDE CHALKBOARD DIMENSIONS AND SIZE ACCORDINGLY

Once the image has been uploaded into Cricut Design Space, change the size of the artwork to fit inside your chalkboard. You want to make sure the LOCK button is not clicked to UNLOCK. This will ensure the dimensions of the image stay intact as you are resizing. For this tutorial, I am using the Darice Chalkboard (link above) and the artwork is sized accordingly.

STEP 4 - UNGROUP THE IMAGE

Click the ungroup button to separate the layers.

school milestone sign

STEP 5 - ADD YOUR CHILD'S NAME

For this tutorial, I am using the KG Penmanship font that I downloaded and uploaded from DaFont.com.

If you need help uploading fonts into Cricut Design Space, check out my tutorial here. I go over how to upload fonts using a Mac, PC, and mobile device.

Select the TEXT option on the sidebar.

school milestone sign

TYPE your child's name out.

school milestone sign

Go into the TEXT drop down menu to search for your uploaded font and SELECT it.

school milestone sign

Change the LETTER SPACING if necessary. For this tutorial, I changed the spacing to ZERO (0).

school milestone sign

STEP 6 - PLACE YOUR CHILD'S NAME INTO THE DESIGN

Add your child's name to the chalkboard design above "First Day Of".

school milestone sign

RESIZE and CENTER to your liking.

school milestone sign

SELECT your child's name layer and the layer with the rest of the WHITE artwork (i.e. the dots, "I am years old", "I stand inches tall").

school milestone sign

Click ATTACH in the lower right hand corner. This will ensure everything cuts on the mat where together.

school milestone sign

Optional: You can repeat this step of attaching like colors together to help you with the placement of your vinyl. I like to do this sometimes to ensure everything is straight and lines up perfectly!

school milestone sign

Before we are ready to prep our mats, make sure to deselect the BLACK rectangle. This is not needed on the final project. I just wanted to have that to visualize how the final chalkboard will look.

school milestone sign

Select the GREEN Make it button.

school milestone sign

STEP 7 - PREPARE YOUR MATS AND MAKE MATERIAL SELECTION

Select VINYL as your base material.

school milestone sign

STEP 8 - LOADING YOUR MATS AND CUTTING YOUR MATERIALS

Attach your vinyl to the Cricut StandardGrip Mat. Make sure to smooth out any wrinkles in the vinyl!

To load the mat into the machine, press the double arrows button. Do make sure that the mat is positioned under the mat guides.

pride t-shirt

Hit the "C" button once it begins to flash and you are on your way to cutting out your vinyl!

pride t-shirt

Once the cut is complete, the double arrows will flash again. Press it and the mat will unload.

When removing the vinyl, peel your mat away from the vinyl rather than peeling your vinyl away from the mat. This will help prevent excess curling.

Repeat step 8 until all layers are cut.

STEP 9 - WEED YOUR VINYL

I like to weed intricate cuts on the mat before I move on to the next cut. It is a personal preference and is totally up to you. However, the mat does act as a third hand!

Weed all layers of your chalkboard sign.

STEP 10 - ASSEMBLE YOUR SIGN

To start, apply transfer tape to the white vinyl layer.

school milestone sign

Remove the backing from the vinyl.

school milestone sign

Apply to your blank chalkboard.

school milestone sign

Use your Cricut Scraper to help adhere the vinyl and remove any air bubbles.

school milestone sign

Repeat for all remaining layers. I recommend the following order:

Brown

school milestone sign

Cream

school milestone sign

Red

school milestone sign

school milestone sign

Blue

school milestone sign

Orange

school milestone sign

Darker yellow

school milestone sign

school milestone sign

Pink and light blue

school milestone sign

Green

school milestone sign

school milestone sign

STEP 11 - ADD YOUR CHILD'S SCHOOL INFORMATION

To do this, I recommend chalk markers. I have a link to the set I use in the blog post.

After you have taken your photos, you can wipe off the chalk marker with a damp cloth and your sign is ready for next year!

© The Bearded Housewife
Project Type: School / Category: Decor

I love how bright and colorful these signs turned out! My kids were jumping up and down when I showed them! To me, that just adds to the excitement of starting another year of learning!

Post a photo in the comment section or tag your projects on social media @thebeardedhousewife using the hashtag #beardedhousewife! I’d love to know what you think!

Love,

WANT THE FREE SVG FILE SO YOU MAKE THIS SCHOOL MILESTONE SIGN YOURSELF?

GET IT FROM MY RESOURCE LIBRARY! YOU’LL RECEIVE THE PASSWORD FOR THE RESOURCE LIBRARY INSTANTLY AFTER FILLING OUT THE FORM BELOW!

WANT MY SCHOOL MILESTONE SIGN
SVG FILE?
​
IT’S IN MY RESOURCE LIBRARY!
​
GET THE PASSWORD HERE!
​

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    school milestone sign

    Filed Under: Decor, Parenting Tagged With: back to school project, back to school sign, cricut explore air 2, cricut maker, cricut project, cricut vinyl project, kids cricut project, oracal 631 vinyl, school chalkboard, school days sign, school sign

    Previous Post: « Upload Fonts into Cricut Design Space
    Next Post: DIY Back to School T-Shirts »

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Criselda

      September 10, 2020 at 3:49 am

      Awesome tutorial. I love used an old picture frame and using a dry eraser pen. I’ll share on IG and tag you.

      Reply
    2. The Bearded Housewife

      September 10, 2020 at 5:11 pm

      Thank you, Criselda! I’d love to see how yours turned out!!

      Reply

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