One of the things we needed to change about Loki was its exterior appearance. The van was purchased locally, and every so often, someone would mistake it for being driven by its previous owner—a homeschooling mother of twelve. To truly make Loki ours, we had to alter its look and feel both inside and out. You can also see the first post Adding Waves to the Side of the Van and then Adding More Wave Decals to the Van which is where we started this process.

Cricut Maker 3

Since a new paint job or vinyl wrap didn’t fit within our Shanty Lifestyle budget, we decided to put our Cricut Maker 3 to work. We use this machine to create everything from iron-on vinyl designs for t-shirts to bumper stickers. It’s amazing. So, we thought, why not design something for Loki’s exterior that would use the existing paint scheme but make it look less like a cargo van and more like a camper? Since we love traveling both on land and water, waves were the obvious choice for the blue stripe.

We used our Cricut Maker 3 and two rolls of Oracal 651 permanent vinyl to create the waves in long strips. Although the vinyl is “permanent,” it can be removed if the van ever needs repainting.

Applying the Vinyl

After a bit of practice aligning everything, we applied the waves over the blue stripe. Starting at the front and aiming for a general look rather than perfection, we managed to complete the job in two afternoons.

The waves wrap all the way around the van to the back doors. We had to mix and match waves here and there to achieve the flow we wanted, mainly because of the doors, but we are really happy with the results.