CTR Wall Art Tutorial Without a Cricut or Silhouette
I wish I could take credit for being the originator of making CTR wall art, but I can’t. I think it is a variation of the baptism towels I’ve seen on the web. In case you didn’t know- CTR stands for Choose The Right.
This project started in the fall at the craft day my church sometimes hosts in the non-chapel parts of the building. When we hold it, a designated group of women will help us bulk order some crafts we can make- usually something we can paint, cut, sew, hot glue, etc.
I ended up not working on my own crafts so much, but helping others work on their vinyl projects. And silly me, I forgot to take pictures of them.
This last weekend, I decided to get caught up on my projects. I completed a picture mat project, and some church-related activity books. I then wanted to tackle this project, but could not find a tutorial online. I had forgotten the instructions in the nearly six months since I had picked up my fabric at the store.
I decided to create a tutorial for everyone else.
Please note you’ve been redirected from my old blog to 8BusyBees.com This post has all the goodness of the old post, AND been updated to give you the best information possible.
Materials needed:
- 2-3 types of fabrics. You’ll want one of the fabrics to be big enough for your background. The green shield is on a background slightly larger than 8×10 so I could tape the sides to the mat. The pink one is adjusted for the larger frame and mat.
- 2 types of interfacing. You want one sided interfacing for the background fabric to give it stiffness. The second type needs to be two sided to act as your glue” between layers.
- 2 copies of the CTR shield. (Find it here).
- X-Acto knife
- sharp scissors
- Iron
- Damp cloth and dry cloth
For this project, I used three fabrics.
Steps:
1) Either create a mirror copy of the shield on a copy machine, or trace the lines with a pen on the back. I did the latter.
2) Using your double-sided interfacing, trace the backwards shield in three parts. You could trace the just the 1/2 inch shield outline and the letters, but I thought it was easier to trace the small shield, the large shield and the letters separately.
3) On the original paper copy of the CTR shield, my (facing the correct way), use your x-acto knife to cut out the letters and part of the shield. You’ll need this later.
4) After you’ve traced everything, do a rough cut of the interfacing and place on the backside of your iron fabric for pressing. Press with a hot iron for a few seconds–just long enough to adhere the interfacing to the fabric.
5) Cut the “fused” interfacing and fabric with sharp scissors. This is reason you needed to trace the letters backwards. Do this for both the large and small shields as well.
6) On the background fabric, iron on the fusible web using a cloth to cover the web and fabric. (The kind I used was like plastic-like and would have melted if it had come into direct with the iron).
Before
Using the cloth
After
7) Peel the paper backing off the large shield and center it on the background fabric. Press. Some types of double-sided interfacing require you to use a wet cloth over the top.
8) Check the fit of the smaller shield. Make any cutting adjustments while the paper is on. If it looks good proceed to the next step.
9) Peel the paper backing off the smaller shield and position it for ironing. Press.
10) Using the second paper copy we cut and set aside earlier, place it on top of both shields for correct position.
11) Peel off the paper backing on the letters and position then on the shields. Press.
12) Voila!
13) Center the piece in your frame or behind a mat. I used another mat.
A close up of the background fabric. It says, “Faith, Hope, Love, Charity” all over it. How cool is that?
The finished project! I hope you enjoy and have fun making your own.
Have a “Bee-utiful” Day!