Chalk A Storage Bin with Cricut Stencil Vinyl!

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Love the look of decorative chalk but are hopeless at freehand drawing and writing (like I am)? Maybe stenciling is the answer!

I bought this lovely tin basket at my local Michaels store, from their Make Market home decor collection, that is perfect for storing my oversized cards that I've made until they get used. But it had a (very trendy) chalkboard panel on the side.

If you know me at all, you know that doing freehand chalk work is absolutely not in my skill set! So how did I get such lovely looking chalking?

Make Market bin

I found the answer in a roll of the new Cricut Stencil Vinyl! The Cricut Stencil Vinyl is clear, and designed to be reusable. You can cut a stencil with your Cricut machine, stencil with it, and then save it to use again!

With stencil material, you "weed" off of the backing the part of the design that you want to paint, chalk or color, leaving it open to receive color. When you're done weeding you can use transfer tape to apply the stencil to your surface.

Cricut Stencil Vinyl

I created this design using a frame from Anna's Decorative Monograms and the "Hello" from the Cindy Loo cartridge.

If you have a Cricut Explore machine would like to use this design yourself, here's a link to the file in Cricut Design Space: bin label. Depending on your owned cartridges and subscription access, it may cost up to $1.98 to cut the file.

Chalk Art

After cutting the stencil out, I adhered it to the bin and started chalking! Eagle-eyed readers may have noticed the two different chalk colors on the bin have a different texture. For the straight lines of the border, I got out a white chalk marker. It flowed nicely in those long lines and was almost exactly the width of the stencil, so it was convenient to use.

For the varying width of the lettering, I got out more traditional chalk pieces and colored inside of the stencil. This left a more dusty appearance than the chalk marker. I think the variance provides texture to the design.

So, what would you chalk if you could use a stencil to guarantee it would be perfect?