DIY Wall Art With Free Black & White Line Art SVG -

Tribal African art and geometric line art is so popular these days. I have to admit that I’ve become a tiny bit obsessed with mudcloth patterns. So while renovating our son’s bedroom over the past few months, I’ve been sending him Pin images of all types of black and white artwork. He’s chosen a neutral Boho style theme and I thought some mudcloth artwork would look nice with his bed and pillow shams. Then it occurred to me that I could hand draw some patterns and create some faux mudcloth vinyl art. Today I’m sharing all of the details with you along with these free mudcloth patterns, so you can create your own version.

DIY wall art Tribal African Boho mudcloth pattern cut from black and white vinyl with free line art SVG, PNG, PDF, DXF & EPS file formats.

This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. See my full disclosure statement here.

HOW TO DOWNLOAD THESE FREE MUDCLOTH PATTERNS

In this tutorial, I will show you how to make these designs using vinyl and an electronic cutting machine (i.e. Silhouette Cameo or Cricut). However, if you don’t have a cutting machine, you could use the PNG file or PDF file to print them as posters at your local office supply store. The PDF and PNG files are saved as 12″ X 18″. For my project, I used 12 X18 mats in 18 X 24 inch black frames.

To download the two free mudcloth SVG files, subscribe at the top right sidebar or at the bottom of this post. I’ve also provided SVG, DXF, EPS, PNG, and PDF versions of the files to accommodate all cutting machine types.

After subscribing, you will receive an email confirming your subscription (check your spam or promotions folder if you don’t see it.) Once you confirm your subscription you will receive a “welcome email” with the password. Go to the library page and enter the password in the empty box located below the word “Password”. You can also access the library on the top menu bar any time you’d like with your password.

Please keep in mind that the password is case sensitive and does have spaces. Also, check to make sure your caps lock is turned off. If you have any problems, email me at laura@heartfilledspaces.com and I’ll do my best to help. Once in the library follow the instructions for downloading your free files.

SUPPLIES TO MAKE DIY WALL ART AND LINE ART SVG CUT FROM VINYL

MATERIALS

TOOLS

CRICUT OR SILHOUETTE CUTTING MACHINE
PAPER TRIMMER
WEEDING TOOLS
12 X 24 INCH CUTTING MAT
CRAFTING KNIFE
BRAYER
BONE FOLDER (FOR EASIER BURNISHING WHILE TRANSFERRING VINYL)

SILHOUETTE CAMEO INSTRUCTIONS

If you have a Silhouette Cameo, open Silhouette Studio. Click file, then open and click on the Mudcloth Horizontal or Mudcloth Vertical file. It will be in the location that you downloaded it to earlier. You can resize the file at this point, if you want. The cut settings I used for this file are:

For Permanent Matte Vinyl: Blade 2, Speed 8, Force 9

Please keep in mind that materials can vary in thickness and your blade can dull over time.

Cut your vinyl down to 18″ long (if you’re making the same size prints as me). Then place it on a 12 X 24″ cutting mat and load it into your machine. I only use the roll feeder (matless cutting) on my machine when the image is longer than 24″.

Cut your roll of vinyl to the size of your frame or mat.

Use a brayer to ensure your vinyl is evenly stuck on the mat. Then load your mat into your machine and send the project to cut. Always do a test cut before sending the entire job.

CRICUT INSTRUCTIONS

If you have a Cricut machine, open Cricut Design Space. On the top welcome bar, click on My Projects. Now on the left menu bar towards the bottom, you should see an Upload button. Click on Upload.

Under Image, click Upload Image. Then click Browse. Now find the file that you downloaded earlier, click on it and choose Open. At this point, give your file an Image Name, Tags and click Save.

Under Recently Uploaded Images, click on the file. Then click the green Insert Images button on the bottom right. Now you can resize the file if you’d like.

Load your cutting mat with vinyl into the machine. I cut my vinyl roll to 18 inches long and placed it on a 12″ X 24″ cutting mat.

Loading vinyl material onto a cutting mat.

Choose your material in the software and click continue. For my project, I chose Matte Vinyl, as this is the base material I used. Load your fine point blade. Then click “Go” or the Cricut button on your machine to start cutting.

Loading a Cricut cutting mat into a Cricut machine for cutting vinyl.

HOW TO WEED YOUR VINYL MUDCLOTH IMAGE

Once your file is cut, you’ll want to weed away the extra vinyl. I use the tip of a craft knife when I weed vinyl. It’s just what I’m use to. But, the vinyl weeding tools work perfectly well and they’re a little bit safer. It’s best to work in a well lit area when weeding your vinyl. I also find it easier to leave my project on the cutting mat when I weed.

You have two options with this project. You can weed out the small pieces and have a black background with white geometric shapes (white background showing through) or you can weed out the black background and have black geometric shapes on a white background. It might even look cool to do one of each. For my project, I left the black geometric shapes and weeded out the black background.

If you are making your project the same as mine, you might want to remove the vinyl in strips. I used a metal ruler and my craft knife to cut the vinyl in strips for easier removal. Some of the thinner lines and dots have a tendency to peel up, so take your time. When I was rushing, I lost a couple of lines and I had to recut those portions of the image again.

How to weed vinyl that has been cut into a detailed line art pattern.

This is just another image to show you how to weed the vinyl.

Here are my two vinyl prints completely weeded and ready to transfer. This is where I noticed a couple of missing lines. If this happens to you, just go back and recut the lines your missing and use you tweezers to place them in the image.

Two mudcloth patterned line art images cut from vinyl to create DIY wall art.

HOW TO TRANSFER YOUR VINYL IMAGE TO YOUR WHITE ART BOARD

Remove the backing from your transfer paper. If you have the roll type of transfer paper, you don’t need to do this step.

Removing the backing from transfer tape for vinyl.

Hold the sticky side of your transfer tape facing your vinyl image. I line it up in the air and then lower the middle portion down on my vinyl first. Then I slowly lower the two ends. Then use a brayer to roll it tight to the vinyl image. You may want to also burnish the image to your transfer paper with a bone folder.

Using a brayer to flatten transfer tape over vinyl.

Next, I peeled the vinyl off of my cutting mat and placed it fact down on a table (the back of the vinyl sheet will be facing you).

Lifting the vinyl with transfer tape off of a Cricut cutting mat.

Then I slowly peeled the vinyl backing off of the transfer tape. You’ll want to take your time with this step as there are a lot of little lines and dots. If the vinyl isn’t staying stuck to the transfer tape, roll the backing down again and burnish it until the vinyl releases from the white paper backing.

Removing the backing from vinyl after transfer tape has been added.

Once done, your image will be completely on your transfer tape.

Adding transfer tape to a vinyl image for transfering.

Now flip the transfer tape sticky side down, holding it on each end so it doesn’t stick to itself. Position the transfer tape/image over your poster board or art board. Once centered, lower it down onto the art board. Now roll the transfer tape with a brayer and burnish the image to the art board. Then start to peel off the transfer tape.

Removing transfer tape after applying vinyl to wall art.

Once the transfer tape is completely removed run the brayer back over the vinyl to make sure it is stuck to the art board. Now set your artboard aside for later.

ASSEMBLE YOUR ART BOARD, MAT AND FRAME

Take your mat and flip it over so the back is facing up. Then add some paper cement to the back of the mat. I like using paper cement for this step because it doesn’t wrinkle the paper or mat and you can reposition it if you place it down wrong.

Add paper cement to mount your mat to your artwork.

Now flip the mat over so the paper cement is facing down. Center the mat over your artboard and press it into place. Let it dry for a few minutes.

While your paper cement is drying, clean the glass on your picture frame (inside and out). Then place your artwork in the frame and close the back tabs over the frame backing. Now you can hang your artwork. Here’s a peak at my son’s new room. He loves the artwork and it coordinates so well with the other items in his room.

JOIN THE COMMUNITY

Don’t miss out! Subscribe on the top right sidebar or bottom of this post to get my latest craft ideas, templates and home decor projects. Join the community and gain access to my free library of over 70 printables, templates and cut files; including these black and white line art SVG files.

FOLLOW ALONG ON PINTEREST

Do you like budget friendly home decor and crafts? Follow me on PINTEREST. Did you know that you can hover over any of the images below and save them for later? Just click on the red Pinterest button and save it to your DIY Wall Art or Cricut board. It’s helpful to Pin It now and save it for later, when your ready to start your project.

It might be easier to print these mudcoth patterns from a print shop. However, I love the crisp clean lines of the vinyl and the clean white color of the art board. Whichever you choose, these line art SVG files will add character to any room. Thanks for following along and let me know how your project turned out.