New Doormat

My doormat has gotten pretty ratty looking...I knew it was time for a new one.  While at Home Depot yesterday I found this plain mat for $5.97...what a deal.  I knew I wanted to try and stencil my own design and figured I wouldn't be devastated if I had a project fail if I only spent $6.  So...being the irreverent person that I am I wasn't about to go the traditional route of "welcome" or initials or anything like that...instead, I opted for NICE UNDERWEAR.  The whole thing takes about 45 minutes and one is only limited by one's imagination for the design.  A cute nautical theme (lighthouse or shell motif), maybe paw prints if there's a dog in the house...lots of possibilities. I started with my plain mat

next, I worked out my text on my Cricut

(I had this brilliant idea to cut the stencil out of contact

paper like I use for silk screening)

Since the cutting mat format is only 12" square it

took 3 cuts to get my words large enough

I cut out each word, then pieced them together

I carefully peeled them off the sticky mat...keeping 

the centers of the D's, R's and A

I used a T square to make sure I was centered and 

straight before [adhering] the contact paper to the mat

I put that in brackets because the contact paper didn't

stick as well as I'd hoped :(

After masking off the exposed mat with tape and printer 

paper, I hauled the assembly outside and spray painted my words

I used chalkboard paint ONLY because I already had it

So, here's my front door

and here's my new mat...as you can see...there's a bit 

of overspray...I think if I'd cut my letters from vinyl it

would have stuck to the bristly mat better