Wood Signs: How to Prevent Your Vinyl Stencil from Peeling Your Paint Up

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Hey Silhouette and Cricut wood sign makers, are you having problems with your vinyl stencil peeling up the paint on your wooden sign? You know the struggle: you’ve cut your wood, sanded your wood, painted the background, applied your vinyl stencil, stenciled the sign, and you when you pull off the stencil little bits of the painted background come up, too! Today, I’m sharing a tip to help you prevent this.

How to Prevent Your Vinyl Stencil from Peeling Your Paint Up

When you pull up your vinyl stencil, pull it up against the grain of the wood. That’s it, it’s just that simple!

Let’s look at some pictures to demonstrate.

I’ve got my sign stenciled and I am ready to remove the vinyl stencil. (By the way, I prefer to use Oramask 813 stencil film.)

On the left side, I have pulled off the Oramask 813 stencil in the direction of the wood grain. You’ll see that several slivers of wood have pulled off onto with the stencil. I’ve circled them in the photo below.

On the other side of the sign, I’ve pulled off the Oramask 813 against the wood grain. 

From the photos, you can see that the stencil didn’t pull up the wood slivers. 

That’s it! One simple tip to prevent your vinyl stencil from pulling up the painted background when you remove it.

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Christine Schinagl, Cutting for Business

Since 2015, Christine Schinagl has been helping crafters start and run craft businesses through her blog, Cutting for Business. As a Silhouette and Cricut crafter herself, she has a unique take on what works and what doesn’t work in the craft business world. She also enjoys teaching other crafters how to create digital SVG designs, available through the Design with Me series.

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