I wanted to share one of my favorite projects so far, my family tree. This is a huge decal; the tree alone is 60 inches tall. It is a family tree living right on my living room wall. I saw something similar on Pintrest of course, yet it was just in black vinyl. I wanted my family tree to be realistic and colorful.
Here is how it turned out.
I started by prepping my area I removed picture frames and my curio box, and washed down the wall with window. You would be surprised at the amount of dirt, spider webs and junk that gets stuck to a wall.
I used Oracal 651 Brown for the tree, Green for the leaves, Blue for the birds, and Turquoise for the frames. Why did I decide to use Oracal 651 when I could have used 631 Exhibition vinyls? In my personal experience, you can use the Oracal 631 on homes that are not freshly painted. There have been great innovations in paint technology leading the paint to be more eco-friendly. This causes problems for use vinyl crafters. The vinyl is unable to adhere to the wall, and sometime will stay stuck to the application tape. I painted my walls about four years ago with a satin indoor paint. I did have a hard time getting my vinyl family tree to stick to the wall. I ended up not using any application tape but pulling the brown tree pieces off the backing and placing them by hand to the wall, smoothing and rubbing each section down. I continued with each additional color.
For the turquoise picture frames, I pulled the frame from the backing and carefully placed the frame upside down on my table. Then using the slight indentations on the backing, I aligned a real picture. I then carefully laid the vinyl frame back on top of the picture, smoothing as I went. I again removed from the backing this time the picture was adhered to it. I then carefully positioned and smoothed my frames to the wall. (Little note, I used pictures I had digital copies off. I know when I go to remove the picture the vinyl will rip or destroy it.)
There were a few air bubbles. In my opinion, air bubbles are caused by dirt and humidity, and in Iowa we have humidity. I was still able to lift the vinyl and smooth out any extreme air bubbles. (Which again this is due to my shiny paint, normally you would not be able to lift up Oracal 651.) There were a few tiny air bubbles which I used my hair dryer to blast the area and smooth the vinyl with my hands. This was also helpful on an old nail that I could not remove.
My tree has been up for two years and it still looks amazing. So do the pictures. People are amazed that vinyl is able to hold pictures to the wall.
Here is the [download id=”1″]
Here is the [download id=”2″]
If there is any problem let me know. I am still new to converting items into studio.
Which vinyl do I need? I love this chart, and I use to refer to it frequently.
From Clever Someday
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