You may not think this is Glowforge related, but it is. We had some rotten boards on our deck, so we ended up replacing every board as the whole thing really needed it. We have a logo that we used on our farm sign, and I decided to use it on a “painted rug” on our deck. GF and mylar to the rescue!
Here’s what our original deck looked like, after I painted it red several years ago. The wood was pretty well worn out, but still served us for several years.
My husband did the base white paint. It took me 2 days to do the “rug.” And I tell you, my knees and back are killing me! It’s not perfect, but I don’t care. And I still have to put a black edge around the farm logo in the center, but my knees and back told me I have to wait a couple days. And in a couple days we’ll also be able to put our chairs and table back on it.
It took me a day of learning how to get my original design into Inkscape, make it into a pattern I could use (the circles and ovals were easy, but I used the “shapes” in Glowforge to get the teardrop shape for the red). Then, because my pattern was just a little too large to fit, the GF left off one red teardrop and one yellow circle. (Not yellow on the pattern, but so you can understand what didn’t cut.) So I had to move the mylar down a bit and focus it into the proper position. It worked perfectly. This is a photo from our sign, which is rather weather-beaten, and the one I had to convert and clean up for the stencil.
I used the settings @Wysdom did back in January 2020 (love “search”). It cut my mylar beautifully. I’m thinking of how I can use the cut out parts - cut them down further for flowy earrings or something maybe? At any rate, it’ll be fun to experiment with. And I have LOTS of mylar! So I’m sure I’ll be making more stencils, especially since I like to make pillow covers and stencil designs on them. I had to trace them on before as I had no way to make really nice stencils. Now I do!
Painting a rug that you can clean with a broom is brilliant! This looks really cool. My wife and I have a screen porch that we could do something like this on. Now to see if I can talk her into it!
Thank you. I’d been wanting to do something like this for years, just couldn’t come up with a design I wanted to try. Pinterest to the rescue! Found one on there that had the blue and green stripes, which was plain and simple. I added the red and the design in the center. The colors are from our farm logo I made about 4 years ago when we registered our farm with the State. I changed the blue to match a new canopy cover I’m making for an old bbq canopy, which we actually use on our pool deck.
Not only can you sweep it (we just use a small Kobalt 20v blower, easier!), but it’s also very easy to wash as it’s all done with outdoor paint. Which is really good, especially since it’s white and shows dirt easily!
And the address is no longer there, as we asked the County to change it to our actual real property driveway instead of a different road where we only have a deeded easement on. Now we have our mailbox attached to it, and it has our new address, so we took the Silver City Rd sign off.
I also plan on making a “barn quilt” to hang on our barn, so I’m glad I already have the stencil made.
