Word Art on Wall DIY: Cheap and Easy Oversized Wall Decor!

Do you need oversized wall decor? Using removable wall decals to put word art on wall is a cheap and amazing solution!

A few months ago I was given the task of decorating our new children’s ministry building.  The children’s pastor had shown me a few pictures of what she was thinking and as much as I loved the idea, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to do it.

There was a huge long wall that was blank and the plan was to put word wall art up that covered most of the wall.  Being type A I had to think for a while on how to apply large wall stickers so that they were straight.

I’m happy to say, with the help of free software and my Cricut, I was able to cut out all the words and apply them to the wall and it only took a few hours. 

This was one of those projects that I actually impressed myself with how this large church wall decor came out! 

Materials Needed for Oversized Wall Decor

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links from Amazon and/or Cricut.com. I receive a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase using my links (purple text).  **Cricut sent me the removable wall vinyl but the opinions and project are my own.

• Vinyl – I used removable vinyl in a variety of colors
• Cricut cutting machine – always check prices between Cricut.com and Amazon (click links to compare!) 
• Transfer tape – I used two different kinds and the one that ended up being easiest was my favorite transfer tape
• Weeding tools and large scraper
• blue painter’s tape
• ruler
• level and/or laser level

How to Design Word Wall Art

This is what makes this project pretty easy… Free websites that make word art!  There are quite a few online but I ended up using WordArt.com.  

When you open it up, hit the Create button and it will bring up a new screen.  Start typing in words on the left-hand side in the word box.  Next to that, it will say “size” and the default is 1.  For the words, you want bigger increase this number.

I entered all the words I wanted to use and then I just played with the numbers.  Another thing you’ll want to play with is “Layout” which is down towards the bottom.  You can change the layout and see what you like and also click the different toggles to see what happens.

Once you have the word art how you like it, you can download it or email it.  I downloaded and printed it out.

Transferring Word Art to Cricut Design Space

If you want everything the same color you can probably upload the JPEG or PNG to CDS.  However, if you want the words really big for a huge wall, then I would assume the letters might get blurry as you start making bigger and bigger.

So I just used my printed word art and used it as a guide in creating the wall mural decal in Design Space.  I used separate text boxes for each word.  I typed in each word using the font Chip Decor – Chipboard font.  Once I had all my words in, I then started resizing them based on my printed word art guide.  Don’t make them huge at this point!  Just bigger.

If you want to access my file in Cricut Design Space click here.

Then it was easy to rotate, change the colors of the words, and place them the same way they are on the paper.  Make sure that each word is “attached” so that Cricut knows to cut the letters together.

To make the words huge, group everything together.  You can click “select all” at the top and then click “group” on the top right.  Zoom out so that the canvas is at 25% (click the minus button on the bottom left).  

The largest you can cut is 11.5 inches so the words you want the biggest can not exceed that size.  If the largest word is longer than 23.5 inches then you are going to have to cut them separately.  I had to separate Bayside in mine.  I attached BAY together and also attached SIDE together.

Then you are ready to cut!

Cutting Large Words with a Cricut

Note: This would be a great project for the Cricut Maker 3 or Explore 3 with the Smart vinyl that is super long! No taping would be necessary, but I made this years before the newer machines came out!

The most important thing when cutting is that you want to have the vinyl on the mat straight.  You want to keep everything as straight as possible.  So when cutting the words apart use a ruler and Exacto knife.

I used a ruler and TrueControl knife to cut in between the words.  Weed off the extra vinyl.

Applying Removable Wall Decals

The tricky part of applying this big wall decor was that the paint on the wall was shiny and the wall was textured.  Which means things do not want to stick easily.

The best and easiest wall to do is one with flat or matte paint.  Satin or eggshell is shinier because it helps prevent stains and you can wipe it off easier.  Thus not wanting blue painter’s tape to stay:(

So that did make this application longer and tougher but we did it!  I just had to use a little more muscle in the scraping down.

For the large long word, Bayside, I taped the backings together and applied a very long piece of transfer tape to the entire word.  

Scrape down the transfer tape well.  Turn it over and scrape the back side too.

I measured the length and height of the wall and marked where the center was.  I wanted the large wall mural decal to be a little lower than the center so I marked about 8 inches down.

Then I used a laser level and had a friend make small pencil markings along the laser line.  We lined up the bottom of the plastic backing with the pencil marks and taped down the top.  The lighting in the building is bad, so sorry for my horrible pictures!!

Flip the image up and peel off the plastic paper.  Lay the vinyl down and smooth it out from the middle to outside.  Scrape down really well and then remove the transfer tape. 

Make sure to watch the quick video to see this part in action.  Sorry, the lighting is so bad!

For the rest of the words, I applied the transfer tape that I just used (The transfer tape actually releases a little easier as it gets used more).  I think I was able to use the same long piece I used for the large words for the rest of the smaller words.

Using your printed word art as a guide, tape up one word at a time.  I placed a three inch ruler in between the words to make sure they were straight and then taped it down.

Flip it up (or down depending on where you applied the painter’s tape), remove the paper backing and lay it back down.

Scrape it down really well and peel off the transfer tape.

Keep repeating the same steps until you have all the word wall art up!

A few other bible verses I put up on other walls.

Word art on wall would also be perfect for wall decor at home, especially in a kids’ bedroom.  Since it’s removable you could change it out whenever you want!

If you’d like to save this tutorial for later, simply hover over the top left of the image below and PIN It now!

Thank you for stopping by!

Have a creative day,