Homemade Peel & Stick Wall Decals

We have a lot of empty wall space in the basement, so I decided to create yet another space to display my children's artwork (they already have one in their bedroom that is completely full....all the time).

I simply strung up some ribbon with tacks and hung their artwork with tiny clothespins. It looked cute, but I thought it needed some sort of lettering above the display. Vinyl is great, but pricey and mostly comes in solid colors. I wanted to do something with some fun and colorful paper.

My friend, Lisa, and I sent some e-mails back and forth about this. She said that some paint stores sell vinyl that you can glue paper to. That got me thinking....contact paper works like vinyl and is cheaper! And mod podge seems to stick to anything....so I made my own peel and stick lettering!

Here is how to make your own.

Supplies:

Scrapbooking Paper

Contact Paper

Mod Podge

Foam Brush

Brush a layer of mod podge onto the top of a piece of contact paper , then place a sheet of paper on top of that. Press down firmly and get rid of the air bubbles. Place under a board or something heavy to keep it flat while drying.

I didn't try spray adhesive, but wonder if it would work as well. If you try it, let me know how it turns out!
Once the sheets have dried, they are ready to be cut! You can use a cricut or stencils to cut into desired shapes. I used both. I used the Cricut for the words "Imagine" and "Create" and made printouts of the words "Get Messy" from Microsoft Word and traced them onto the contact/cardstock.Peel off the backing and adhere to the wall.

There you go!
Custom peel and stick letters that are nice and sturdy, easy to place onto a wall, repositionable, and inexpensive!
And these aren't limited to lettering! The possibilities are endless especially with the huge variety of cricut cartridges. You can make all sorts of custom scenes for your wall.

***I noticed a few of my corners and edges coming off of the contact paper when I went to peel the backings off. I guess the mod podge wasn't thick enough in those areas. I just added a little tacky glue to fix the small spots and they were good to go.***
Our basement is brighter lit than most basements, but it is still hard to take a good picture down there. You get the idea.