There’s nothing quite like pulling off a stencil to reveal beautiful, crisp lines…
…and then you take a step back and notice your design is WAY crooked or off center.
It’s the WORST especially when you’re painting on stained wood and you can’t just repaint it.
Never fear!
I’ve got a fix for you and a free download!
THE BOX GUIDE
Using a box guide will solve all your problems – for real. First, you’ll need to either create your box guide or grab the freebie one I’ve got for my VIP folks.
If you don’t want to opt in, no big deal – here’s how you make your own:
(Click here to skip the box creation part if you opted in
and downloaded my box freebie)
- Create a box shape in your software. Make it about 12” but it doesn’t matter the exact size for now.
- Create a tiny box (about a quarter inch or so) and turn it 45 degrees so that it’s sort of like a diamond.
- Replicate the tiny box three times so you have four.
- Line up two of the tiny boxes/diamonds on the left and right sides of the box. Make sure the middles of the diamonds are lined up with the lines of the big box
- Use your align tool to line them up so they are perfectly centered on the sides of the box.
- You now should have a box with diamonds lined up and centered on the left and right sides.
- Group the box with two diamonds together.
- Take your other two diamonds and do the same thing, only with the top and bottom.
- Select all of these items and weld it all together.
- You now should have a box shape with little triangle type points sticking out of the exact center of each of the 4 sides. This is your box guide.
Note: If your design goes realllly close to the edge of your sign, you’ll need to modify the small boxes accordingly to make sure you leave enough space.
USING THE BOX GUIDE
Now that you have your box guide, you’ll want to resize it according to your project. I personally like to make it so that it is just about a quarter inch smaller than my design on each side.
Let’s pretend I’m making a sign that is 8”x12″. I’ll resize my box guide to be 7.5”x 11.5”. This way I can center it and leave a quarter inch space on each side.
Now that the box guide is correctly sized, all I have to do is place my design within the guide, position it the way you want, and cut. I’m using my Arabica Coffee design here.
On your sign, measure to the center of each side and mark it with painter’s tape.
Once your stencil is on transfer tape and ready to go, just line up the pointy parts with the center marks you made on the sign and apply your stencil.
And voila! Perfectly centered vinyl stencils, every time.
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How cool is this ? THANK YOU for sharing !!!!
Thanks so so so much I’m actually working on such a project right now and I was about ready to pull my hair so I stopped signed on Facebook and P*O*O*F there this was it was meant to be and I couldn’t possibly thank you enough!!!!!
Thank you for this incredible tutorial—definitely going to try it!!
I am confused how to download the file…I thought I was already signed up but not sure how to get the free file—-also tried to get your “Adventure” free file but again says I’m already signed up. Any suggestions?
Thanks so much!
Hi Donna! If you check the email I sent you about the article you’ll see the link to the freebies page in there along with the password to get in 🙂
Does this work with apple computers
Hi Judy – works fine on my macbook, and I would assume Cricut would be the same way (or similar, but I’m a Silhouette girl so I can’t tell you for sure).
You are a genius! Thank you so much for sharing this tip! <3
Great tutorial. But I do not see a link for the sign up for the box guide cut file? How may I go about downloading it. Thanks so much!
Hi Rose!
The form was missing just now! Just a website glitch but I’ve got it back now 🙂
How would one go about for a round stencil?
Hmm, good question. I suspect I’d make a stencil with a circle and points instead of a square/rectangle. And then, on your sign blank, you’d have to divide up your circumference and make marks for each point. So for example if you make four points and you have a circle that measures 36″ in circumference, you’d make a mark every 9 inches so you’d have 4 marks, and then line up the points with those marks.
I haven’t used this back yet.. but I’m just getting started on the circle signs and it’s my biggest fear for things to be off centered or crooked in anyway so thankyou for your tips and my OCD thanks you too
I don’t understand where the pointy parts of the box are once you cut out the letters? Wouldn’t that be in the scrap part that you remove and throw away?
Well – I think it depends on how you letter your signs. Since when I do my signs, I want my letters to be the stencil, I’d have one sheet anyway with my letters/design cut out of it (as you can see in the photos). So then, I can just make the line/points the outside edge of my stencil.
If, however, you prefer to do the inverted painting method where you first paint the color you want your letters and then put your stencil (of the letters only, not the negative space) and paint over with your background color, then what I’d probably do is make a second box (no points needed) right inside the first so that it can be “cut out” along with your design.
How would this work for large signs? Like the 2’x3’ I’m making now?
Hi Mandy! If I was making a bigger sign than my mat, I would resize the design itself as big as I needed it and then find good places to slice the design (and the frame) so I could cut it in multiple pieces. Then, once it’s all cut and weeded, I’d line it up one piece at a time so I have one big decal ready to transfer. Or even if you could have one piece with at least two of the marks on it you’d be okay.
However – I think in bigger signs, you have a little more room for error as far as centering so depending on what your design is, you may not even need to make sure it’s 100% centered. I think it’s really on the smaller signs that it’s REALLY easy to notice if it’s a little bit off, as opposed to the bigger designs.
Very nice, thank you so much!
Oh, my! This is awesome! It will save me so much time! Thank you for sharing!!
As a sign professional for over 35 years, I think you’re making it too hard. Simply layout your sign within a box the same size as your sign. The graphics software should center the lettering within the box. Weed the vinyl and trim out to the size of your box, after masking.
Now, just line up the edges of the masked vinyl with your board(s). Yeah, it wastes a little bit more vinyl, but it saves time and time isn’t something you’ve got when doing these kinds of signs. Get it done fast and move on. Signs are WAY too cheap these days because everyone has some kind of cutter and basic software.
Keith, guess I’m a visual. I read you comment five times and still can’t grasp it. I’ll keep trying though. I always love that there is usually more than one way to do something. Love trying different ways to see which one works for me. Thanks for your suggestion.
Im new to sign making world. So, basically you want to cut you printed out stencil, to the size of the wood you are putting it on?
You solved a problem that has haunted me. Thank you very much.
Thank you sooo much!
Bethany, I am trying to get the “box guide” and cant get it to email me the link ?!
Hi Chris! I’m so sorry I missed this comment earlier! If you’ve signed up and you never got the freebie email, send me an email (hello at boardbattendesign dot com) and I’ll check it out for you.
I have tried to download the freebie. I get as far as confirming my email and then I don’t get the next email with the link and password.
Hey Linda! I think I remember you’d emailed me about this and we got it all resolved but if not, make sure you send me an email so I can take a look. hello at boardbattendesign dot com.
Im so new at this and ive had my Cricut 2 yrears…so im diving in and u seem to make sense…so thankyou and here goes….pj
Thank you so much for sharing this! I’m new at this and know this will greatly help!
I use the box idea quite frequently but have never seen the diamond side bars before. Make sense and even easier now to keep a straight design.
Hi! I signed up and cannot find the box guide—found all of your other wonderful things! I tried making my own but the diamonds were jumping all around when I tried realigning. I would really appreciate the link. to the guide!
What about for round signs? Can you make a circle and find 4 points like you do with the square?
Yes! I think that would work just fine.
Any chance you could do a video on your tips. I learn way better by visually seeing work in progress.
Thanks
Hey Susan – Someday I probably will! Doing video is quite a bit more complicated and takes a lot of time to set up, film, and edit, so it’s something I’d like to do but no promises on when 🙂
Bethany
I’d really appreciate a video–please and thank you–because I’ve read the instructions now a few times, and I still don’t get it.
I can put that on my list! I’m in the middle of moving now and will be pretty crazy for a while but I’ll see if I can’t do that.
It downloaded the freebie box to firefox, but how do I get it to my cricut design place?
Hi Jennifer! I have instructions on how to load my files in Design Space here – https://shop.boardbattendesign.com/pages/instructions-for-using-svg-files – it didn’t download the file to FF, it just opened it with FF since that’s probably what your computer has set for the default program to open SVG files. Double clicking an SVG will almost always open the file in your default browser, so you have to open it from the Design Space end like in my instructions.
I am so stuck, I am trying to make a sign for our camp road, so there will be 40 names on it. The boards for each name are 15″x2.25″. I am trying to make stencils for each name to paint and the names are centered on each board. I cut out the vinyl the same dimensions as the board and am trying to center the name in cricut so all I have to do is print the vinyl, weed it, use transfer tape to put it on the board, and it’s all centered and ready to paint. I can’t seem to center it though. Will your box help with that? I can’t get your box to open in my cricut design space though. Please help! Thank you!
The box SHOULD help but you could also make another one if it doesn’t. The box can be stretched to fit most any size, and I’ve used it for signs with similar proportions. You may want to make your own, though, just because the boards are so small height-wise that the box may take up too much space.