Make It with Cricut Access: Farmhouse Style Windmill Sign

For this week’s Make It with Cricut Access™ project, I wanted to get away from cards and show you how quickly and easily you can make stylish home decor yourself. There are so many beautiful home decor projects within Access™ it’s hard to choose which ones to make! If you’re like me and binge watch fixer upper and wish you could have Joanna come and redecorate your house, you will love this Farmhouse Style Windmill Sign project made with just a few materials.

The only thing I had to run out and buy (with my Michael’s coupon) was a 12″ x 24″ mat. The sign I bought was 20 inches tall, so a 12-inch windmill would have looked silly. But, if you get a smaller sign, you can adjust your windmill size accordingly. I found this sign at Hobby Lobby already stained, for $20 before my coupon. As with all of the projects in this series, the cut file was found in Cricut Access™ within Design Space™. If you have Access™, you will have this file available. Let’s get started!

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Make It with Cricut Access™: Farmhouse Style Windmill Sign

materials

• 20″ x 16″ Pre-stained Wood Sign (Or Your Choice of Size)
• White Chalk Paint
• Foam Brush
• Cricut Explore or Newer
• Cricut Access™
• Bronze Vinyl Roll (Or Your Color Choice)
• Cricut 12″ x 24″ Cutting Mat
• Cricut Tools Weeder
• Cricut Tools Scraper
• Transfer Tape
• Jute Cord
• Scissors
• Sandpaper

farmhouse style windmill sign steps

one: Paint your wood sign with the white chalk paint and a foam brush. You don’t want it to look perfect, just a sort of whitewash. Use the sandpaper if you like to distress it a little more.

Note: I want to point out that in some of these steps, you will see me putting the windmill piece onto the unpainted wood. That’s because I realized when I was done that I didn’t like how the pretty bronze vinyl got lost in the stained wood. So, I peeled it off, painted the sign, then carefully stuck it back on while the paint was still slightly damp, helping to stick the vinyl to it. If you choose a different color of vinyl, it may look fine against the wood, but I wanted bronze.

two: Open Cricut Design Space™ and log in if you have Cricut Access™, go to the drop-down menu and select Home Decor. You should see this windmill project called Windmill Wall Hanging. Select the project and click “Customize.”

three: It populates the edit screen at 18 inches tall. If you need for yours to be shorter, reduce the size now.

four: Cut off 19 to 20 inches of your bronze vinyl. As I mentioned above, you can choose whatever vinyl color best suits your taste and decor color scheme. I think the bronze gives it a nice “glamrustic” edge, though. Aleisha gets credit for making up that word! Stick the vinyl to the mat as smoothly as possible. You don’t want any air bubbles.

Newbie Tip: Leave that paper backing on for now. Sticky vinyl plus sticky mat equals you never peeling that off this century.

five: Turn on your Cricut Explore and set the dial to “Vinyl.” Go back to Design Space and click “Go.” It will tell you they have updated it to a larger mat, so click “Continue.” Click “Go” on the next screen. I prefer not to use Fast Mode for detailed cuts, but it’s your choice. Click the “load” button on your machine and then the blinking “C” button on your machine to cut out the windmill.

six: Once it’s finished cutting, carefully pull the vinyl with its backing off of the mat. Carefully cut off any excess vinyl from around your design. You can use these large scraps for another project.

seven: Take your weeder and pull the negative space vinyl off of the paper backing. Be careful to not pull off any of your design. Smooth any lumps out once you’re done weeding.

eight: Cut a piece of transfer tape the same size as your vinyl piece. Apply the transfer tape to your vinyl design, burnishing (rubbing) it with your scraper tool to make sure the vinyl is sticking to the transfer tape.

fun fact: That’s not actually transfer tape, it’s stencil vinyl. I didn’t realize it until the next day. Oh, well. It worked like a charm. It’ll be our secret, shh…

nine: Carefully pull the transfer tape back, off of the paper backing, making sure your vinyl design is sticking to the tape.

ten: Hold your vinyl design above your sign to decide where you want to place it then, starting in one corner, slowly place it on the sign. Burnish (rub) the design into the wood of the sign with the scraper tool.

eleven: Slowly start peeling the transfer tape off, starting in one corner. Make sure the vinyl design is sticking to the wood and burnish it more as needed. Smooth out any bubbles you may see.

twelve: Cut one yard of jute cord and tie it or staple it in a loop to the back of the sign if needed. If you don’t plan to hang it up, there’s no need to use the jute cord or you could hang it using the hangers already on it.

That’s it! I am one more step closer to transforming my home decor from world market chic to comfy and bright farmhouse. Scrolling through the Home Decor section of Cricut Access™, I found loads of other easy, affordable, and do-able projects I can make to help me along the way. Sure, I definitely want to find some fun items at flea markets just like Joanna, but being a crafter, I love the idea of being able to jump online and make projects like this Farmhouse Style Windmill Sign, using Cricut Access™, in no time at all. Win, win!

Be sure to check out our other DIY Decor projects and follow our DIY Project Inspiration board on Pinterest for loads of ideas!

And you should definitely see our other projects from the Make It with Cricut Access™ series like our Baby Chicks Easter Card. Or, just go to Cricut Access™ and see all of the inspiring projects you can make.

If you’re more in the market for other DIY Farmhouse projects, one great resource is DIY Idea Center. They have loads of other amazing projects as well.