The sun is finally out in Seattle and it’s feeling like spring.  I generally change the welcome sign by our front door with the change of seasons/holidays but the only one I have a with a Jewish flare is a “Happy Hanukkah” one.  So, I decided I wanted to do a simple Shalom (shalom is Hebrew for peace and also a greeting of hello).  I started with an 8×24″ canvas and a can of chalkboard spray paint.  Then, using my Silhouette Cameo cutting tool, I designed the word “Shalom” in the “Sholom” font in Silhouette Studio to fit the dimensions of the canvas.  Next, I cut out the word in vinyl to use as a reverse stencil on the canvas.

Adhering the vinyl directly to the canvas proved a bit tricky so I ended up spraying a coat of primer first just to give it a bit more to grip to.  Even then, it took a lot of patience to stick the vinyl letters to the canvas.  Once you have them in place, you just have to make sure they are really pressed down in order to minimize paint seepage.  Then it was time to spray the chalkboard paint.  You need two coats to get a good chalkboard surface.

After the paint dried, the next step was to carefully remove the vinyl letters.  The edges were a little uneven and I could have left it for a rustic look but decided that I’d be happier painting over the letters with white paint to clean them up a bit.  I also attached some hanging hardware to the back so that I could attach a ribbon for hanging.  And if I ever wanted to move this indoors and put it on the mantel, you could do that too because the hardware is hidden in back. The beauty of this is that I can now change out the ribbon to fit my mood the season(can’t wait to use my matzoh ribbon for Passover!).

For the lovely spring day we’re having, I went with a nice rainbow ribbon, then added a little message with my chalk pen (also customizable to the occasion) and ta-da, our new welcome sign:

Hope you are out enjoying some sunshine!