Dixie Belle On The Farm Transfer

This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my link, at no extra cost to you. Please read full disclosure here.

How to cut and apply the Dixie Belle Bells and Whistle On The Farm transfer to make a wooden farmhouse sign.

Handmade gifts are hands down my favorite type of gifts. I soak up every opportunity there is to let my creative juices flow and make something unique and special. While of course it’s way easier to just buy something at the store or give a gift card…I prefer to make things hard on myself and make something that has a ton of meaning behind it!

This past year my daughter started English horseback riding lessons and it quickly became her life’s passion. So much that we began leasing this super sweet fella; Ty!

My daughter is so dedicated and spends almost all of her free time at the farm taking lessons, spending time with Ty or helping with chores (if only I had piles of horse poop around the house, maybe she would be interested in doing chores at our house! hahaha)

They really make such a great team!

For Christmas I wanted to do something special for her instructor who owns the farm. When I received the “On The Farm” transfers from Dixie Belle Paint in the December Unboxing, I immediately knew I was going to make…a personalized wooden sign!

This was actually my first time using a Belles & Whistles transfer so I learned a lot! In this post I’ll share all of my errors to help ensure you don’t make the same mistakes as I did!

Check out: Before & After Projects Using Dixie Belle Chalk Paint

Supplies

• 3/4″ sanded plywood (I used a scrap piece of wood and am not sure how large this really was)
• 1X2x8 furring strips (not pictured below)
• Minwax Early American stain
• Dixie Belle chalk paint: Drop Cloth
• Dixie Belle chalk paint: Fluff (not pictured below)
• Belles and Whistles On The Farm Transfer
• 2″ Angled mini brush
• Sanding Sponge
• Silhouette Cameo to cut out customized designs (I cut the words out of vinyl using my Silhouette)
• small wreath and greenery
• hot glue gun

Let’s Make It Together!

STEP 1: Cut Out Transfer

Remove the transfer from the packaging and lay flat. Cut out the designs you want to use from the large sheet, ensuring that the white backing paper does not come off.

Lay the design WITH the white backing paper still on, on the wood and arrange until you’re happy with the placement.

STEP 2: Lay Transfer

Once you’re happy with the design placement, it’s time to start laying the transfer!

Carefully remove the white backing paper from the transfer. **Do not let the transfer touch anything except where you want it to be permanently.

Angle the wooden stick (aka tongue compressor) that comes with the transfer, and rub firmly over top of the transfer. Very carefully begin pulling back the clear plastic piece that is on top of the transfer. You may have to rub harder and longer in some places while you remove the plastic top. Be careful not to tear the transfer.

Error #1 When Applying A Furniture Transfer

The barn comes in two transfer pieces. I wasn’t exactly sure where to line them up, so I overlapped the two transfers just a bit, and that was wrong. Don’t be like me. You can see in the photo below what I’m talking about = there is a “darker” line coming down the right side of the barn.

Error #2 When Applying A Furniture Transfer

My transfer also tore a little at the top where the snow was on the roof so I thickly painted Dixie Belle Fluff over the roof to make it look like real snow.

Error #3 When Applying A Furniture Transfer

When I was figuring out where I wanted my transfer to go, I took the white backing paper off and laid it on my wood sign carefully (it did not stick). When I removed it and put it back on the white backing paper, I hadn’t realized there were two different sides to the white paper = one side is slick, one side is more like regular paper. **The transfer has to go on the slick side!

Yep, you guessed it, I put the transfer back on the regular side and it stuck and tore my transfer. You can see it below behind the greenery bushes going into the barn door.

STEP 3: Build the Frame

Once I had the On The Farm transfer applied along with my vinyl logo, I built the frame for the sign. You can see my tutorial for building signs HERE along with how I design, cut and apply vinyl transfers using my Silhouette Cameo. This is the permanent vinyl I used.

When the frame was done, I came back and added some embellishments to hide my mistakes/errors. Using a hot glue gun, I added a wreath to the barn, greenery for the pine trees and wooden sticks for a fence. Which, in all reality matches the farm where my daughter rides … so … hopefully those additions didn’t really seem like they are covering errors! haha

I was bummed that I didn’t have better light to take a photo of this sign completely made with the actual barn behind it – but I was down to the last minute finishing it before my daughter’s lesson and us heading out of town to celebrate Christmas with family. So…this is the best we get!

Check Out More Dixie Belle Projects!

Click on the photo below for the full tutorial!