License Plate Art

Some states have specialty license plates for activities like cycling or running, so I wanted to include some of those. I happened to see a "Share The Road" vanity plate that a fellow Bike the US for MS alumni posted on Facebook. (Search “Share the road” if you’re looking for cycling-themed license plates.)

I ended up spending hours researching license plates on eBay. I had no idea there were so many cool options.

There are options to buy license plates in bulk, too, but you don’t know what you’re getting.

So I started looking specifically for ones that I wanted, for example, the Illinois plate with the number “3” to use in place of the letter “E.” (Did you know that license plates never use the letter “E”? I didn’t.)

Funny enough, one of the sellers I bought from on eBay turned out to be the same person who did the original Etsy design, because I sent an inquiry looking for a specific plate and explained my project. He or she was not mad at me at all for adopting the idea and was actually very enthusiastic about helping me. So I felt better knowing that I was not incurring any negative karma by stealing someone’s idea! Their eBay page is rusticplates and they put together a custom listing for me.

To prevent myself from making mistakes I marked each plate with a post-it note to show the letter I intended to cut out.

First, using the awl and T-square, I marked straight lines for where I intended to cut.

Here's the cut lines marked by the awl.

I thought the bench shear would be perfect for this project, but it was a challenge to keep the license plate held straight, because the shear is not designed to cut things so thin. It was also large and expensive. So I returned it.

My first few cuts were not straight at all and I was getting frustrated.

First, I attached 1/4" upholstery foam to the wood panel using 3M 90. I used the tailor scissors to trim the foam down, although regular scissors would suffice, and then used a utility knife with a carpenter's square to trim the edges. It doesn’t have to be exact. Using a paint pen I marked the area where the license plates would go, because I wanted them to be embedded within the foam (so as not to be too thick, since it is going on the slider door.)

I cut a strip of the Sunbrella fabric and attached it using the 3M 77 spray. It didn’t take long to adhere at all. Just have to make sure you smooth out any air bubbles in the fabric. Also, be sure not to spray too much adhesive (blot it out with a tissue if you do), because you don’t want it to bleed through to the other side.

Then, flip it over and pull the fabric tight and attach with the stapler.

I didn’t know how to upholster corners so I just left them as-is for the time being. It was a bit of a trial and error thing for me.

Getting ready to attach the license plates. I had to trim a lot of them town a bit smaller to make sure there was enough room for them all.