Celebrate the perfect mix of summer and Halloween with this bright and colorful Sweet Summerween Sign!
Summerween is here, and I couldn't be more excited about it! To help make my house look a little more festive for this new "season", I drew up some ideas for a new piece of decor. Once I had my design ready to go, I put my xTool S1 laser cutting machine to work to bring this Sweet Summerween Sign idea to life. Needless to say, I'm in love. This project is a lot of fun make, easy to assemble, and is such a bright and festive piece of decor.
New to laser cutting? Be sure to check out how to get started with the xTool S1 Laser Machine!
To make your own Sweet Summerween Sign, you will need these supplies:
- xTool M1 or xTool S1 laser cutting machine
- Sweet Summerween Sign Design (personal use only)
- 3mm Basswood
- Acrylic Paint - black, white, pink, green, and orange
- Glitterific Neon Paint - pink, orange, green
- Paint Brushes
- Strong Adhesive
- Clamps (optional)
- Ribbon
*Save extra 15% off on xTool selected materials: AFFMTRS15
Printables and cut files from Artsy-Fartsy Mama are for personal use only. This means you may use these for your own creations, but you may not sell them. If you'd like to share this project digitally, share a link to this post/website only. Do not share a direct link to the printable/cut file.
Upload the Sweet Summerween Sign design into xTool Creative Space. When you upload an SVG design, you need to make sure each part of the design is set for cutting, scoring, and/or engraving. For this project, everything in black needs to be cut, red needs to be engraved, and blue needs to be scored.
Place a piece of 3mm basswood into the xTool S1 machine. Manually pull the laser box with your hand so that the red "+" is located on the material - it doesn't have to be centered. In XCS, you will see "Distance (mm)" in the right menu bar. Click on the target icon to the right of that space, and the machine will automatically measure your material.
*For more details on how to complete this step, be sure to check out my review of the xTool S1 Laser Machine!
Make sure that the design elements are within the marked bounding box in XCS, and then click the green "Process" button in the bottom right corner to proceed to cutting the project.
After removing the wood pieces from the machine, I would highly recommend cleaning the soot away from around the edges of the wood using a Magic Eraser or baby wipes to prevent making marks all over your hands and workspace.
Paint all of the pieces with acrylic paint and allow them to dry completely. If necessary, add an additional coat for full coverage. For extra sparkle, I topped the watermelon pieces and "summerween" letters with coordinating Glitterific neon paints.
Not pictured, but be sure to also paint the top half of the back board and the bottom half piece in black paint. The third part of the sign (where the letters will go) needs to be painted white.
I also decided to add glitter to the "splash" icons on the other part of the sign where the words will be attached. As you can see, the Glitterific paint is a mix of colorful glitter pieces suspended in a clear gel-like medium. Simply apply a thick coat of the glitter paint over the painted area, and give it plenty of time to dry.
Once dry, the Glitterific paint is no longer tacky to the touch and the glitter stays in place. Seriously, it's not going anywhere!! I love the texture and dimension it gives to pieces that would otherwise be flat.
I kept the word "sweet" free from glitter, which is a nice contrast to more colorful and sparkly elements. Apply a small dot of adhesive to the back of the word "sweet" and match it up with the scored lines. Next, apply adhesive to the back of each letter and line each one up with the scored lines. Having these scored lines on the board first ensures that the pieces go on exactly where they are needed.
Next, it's time to put the watermelon pieces onto the bottom half of the sign. The white piece of the watermelon is only part of the design that has been scored. Apply some adhesive to the back of the white piece and align it with the scored lines. Now you can easily line up the green and pink watermelon pieces with the white one!
Next, apply adhesive to the back of the next two sign pieces (the white word section and green scallop) and press them into place on the sign above the watermelon section. Use clamps to hold the pieces together until the adhesive sets.
For a little extra, well, "extra", I decided to pair a small bundle of pink, green, orange, and black ribbon together to make a scrappy little bow. All I did was cut 8 pieces of ribbon measuring the same length (about 5-6 inches) and stacked them together. I used one smaller piece of pink ribbon to tie them all together in the center. Then all you need to do is fan out the ribbons to create a bow! Easy, peasy!
Add a dollop of hot glue to the back of the bow and press it into place between the two holes at the top of the sign. Use a clamp or hold the bow in place until the glue sets.
Fan the bow out again, if necessary, then thread a ribbon or twine through the holes in the sign to hang it up! Now summerween is officially ready to begin!! Needless to say, I am LOVING this new sign, and it was so much fun to make. As always, I would love to see what you're making! Share your creations on Instagram, Facebook, or leave a comment/photo on the project pin on Pinterest! #AFMCrafts.
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