DIY Cut Words With Free Templates

So while trying to find something to hang on that empty little porch wall, I kept seeing these cute cut words.  I really wanted to give them a try. My first thought was “yum” for the kitchen, but then I had a better idea courtesy of my sister.  She wanted to stage a flip house with a “welcome home” sign… a bit of an obvious subliminal message ? And on I went.

When I did a practice run with “yum”, I grabbed a piece of plywood from my scrap pile.  Then, when I did the welcome home sign, I used a 2’ x 4’ piece of ¼” thick MDF. The mdf is so much easier to cut, but it can break.  You may wish to step up to ½” thick to make your word sturdier, especially if you have thin pieces in the word.

All of the following are laid out for 2×2 or 2×4 sheets.

1. Download your desired word and print all sheets.
2. Line up the sheets and tape together to create your template.
   
3. Attach the template to the MDF with painters tape. (tip, you may wish to lay it upside down to cut your material with the back facing up. This will give you a cleaner front since the jigsaw will chew up the side facing up a bit more than the side facing down (moreso on plywood than MDF).
4. Using a ball point pen, trace over the word to create an indentation in the wood/ MDF (you have to push pretty hard for MDF, plywood is a bit softer). I then traced over the indent with pencil.
   
5. Grab your jigsaw and go!
   
6. I used a soft sanding block to smooth the edges a bit, then simply spray painted the letters.
7. Hanging was no sweat with command strips!

Viola!

Ready to give it a shot? If you’re like me, after you’re done you’ll be looking for more fun things to cut with your jigsaw 😉 Find a word or phrase below that strikes your fancy and GO! Simply right click on the image of the word to download the pdf template.

2×2 Material

The following words will fit onto a 2′ x 2′ sheet.  You may have to lay the word diagonally.

2 x 4 Material

The following will fit onto a 2′ x 4′ sheet (the “sweet” below is larger than above):

 

Board Layouts

You can make the phrases below out of one sheet of 2′ x 4′ material using these layouts:

home sweet home

sweet dreams

welcome home

merry christmas

Looking for a different word? Drop me a message and I will try to get it to you. Enjoy and be sure to pin for later!

P.S. thankful is below 🙂