Arrow of Light award + Silhouette cut file

BC is one of the Webelos leaders in our pack.  Troop?  Herd of scouts?  Whatever…you get what I mean, right?

This means that the responsibility for making some sort of plaque for the boys receiving this award has become mine.  The pack/troop/herd gives the boys an arrow along with this award.  It was previously tied on with twine, but during my extensive Google searching, I saw some with cup hooks, which I liked MUCH better.  So, here’s what the boys are now receiving:

photo (36)-001

(Last name blurred for bloggy purposes)

BC has a crate shop at work and therefore TONS of 1X4 scraps.  This is a 12” board.  I painted it a scouty blue (cheap acrylic craft paint) and then applied the Arrow of Light vinyl.  I’ve uploaded the Silhouette Studio cut file I created for you here.

I managed to get eight arrows on a 12 X 24 piece of vinyl, which runs about $2 where I get mine locally.

So far we’re in this free wood, paint I already had, plus 25 cents worth of vinyl.  The cup hooks come in a pack of 100 for just over $4, so another 10 cents there.  And then I add the boy’s name and the date in white vinyl at the bottom.  So far I’ve managed to just use scraps for this, but I’d guess you’re using 10 cents of vinyl for that as well.  Grand total?  45 CENTS.  Nice, right?

I mass produced them last week so I can just add names over the next little while:

photo (37)-001

So, if you’re a Scouter in need of an Arrow of Light plaque, this is a quick and inexpensive one!

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Comments

  1. This is awesome! We have a Life Scout and a Bear Scout at our house and love Scouting.

    Now I just need a Silhouette…

  2. I LOVE this. I wish my Scout had gotten something cool like this. Instead, they literally gave him an actual arrow. With a sharp point. And no name, or date, or anything. Oh well, his cub troop was kinda lame. That’s why I’m glad we moved him to an awesome Scout troop where he is currently thisclose to Life Scout.

  3. David just got called to be the 11 yr old scout leader. Do they do this arrow of light thing? Or is that a different age group? And what do you hang from the hooks? Sorry, I’m out of the scouting loop!

    • They get it at the end of Webelos, before they go into 11yo scouts. And they hang an arrow from it. I don’t really get it, but I guess scouts love arrows.

      • The Arrow of Light Ceremony is beautiful. The arrow has a meaning which is explained by the Order of the Arrow members during the ceremony. the Arrow of Light. Within the tepee of many braves, this symbol has an honored place. Its shaft is straight and narrow – just as the path that you should follow throughout your life. This tip points the way – the way to success in all that you do. It is pointing to the right – a symbol that nothing should be left undone. If it is within your power to do, see that it is done. And lastly, the symbol of the seven rays of the sun – one for each day of the week – to remind you that every day is a new day, a day to do your best in everything. A day to honor your country and your God, to do your Good Turn, a new chance to follow the Scout Law and to remember this: ON MY HONOR.
        If you search for the meaning of the arrow, you’ll find it very motivational for the webelos crossing over to a troop.

  4. Thanks for sharing. I will have a webelo this week. Filing for the future!

  5. The Arrow of Light is the Eagle of Cub Scouts. It IS a BIG DEAL! Those boys work hard. I love your idea and as the Cubmaster I will now be making these. Thanks for the great idea!

  6. How do you print this long vinyl on a Silhouette? Do you need a cutting board that long too? Just trying to figure it out. Thanks for the help.

    • Char @ Crap I've Made says:

      I have the Silhouette CAMEO that cuts up to 12″ wide. If you have either the SD or the Portrait, you could just rotate the cut 90 degrees and cut it that way. Hope that helps!

  7. I’m a little late to the party. I’ve downloaded the Studio file, but when I open it in Studio, there doesn’t appear to be anything there. Am I doing something wrong? Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!

  8. Nevermind. I had an older version. Once I updated to the current version, it read up just fine. Thank you for the wonderful tutorial and for the cut file!

  9. Where do you get your vinyl? Is it a chain? Just curious where else to find besides michaels or Joann’s and I like the idea of sheets vs rolls.

  10. Hi! Great project that we’d like to do for our Cubs, but I’m having trouble downloading your studio file. It’s sending me to a spam-type download site. Any chance I can get the file a different way? Thanks!

    • Peggy Hamilon says:

      I am getting the file and it is downloading in spam. Could I also get this arrow of light file a different way?
      thanks. Peg

  11. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!

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  13. Heather says:

    Could you tell me the exact dimensions of the wood? I have to make few of these this week, but I don’t know how big to cut the wood.
    Thanks.

  14. Hi! Your Arrow of Light awards are awesome! But I don’t have a Silhouette. I was wondering if you sell the vinyl cut-outs or the completed projects. I’m looking to keep my cost reasonable. It looks like I’ll be needing 5 Arrow of Light awards next spring. But it’s not to early to start planning ahead. I live in Missouri if you are looking at shipping rates. If we could strike a reasonable deal I could mail you a check before you ship to me.

  15. I do not have a silhouette machine. Does anyone know where I could purchase these precut?

  16. Thank you for posting this! And thanks for the silhouette file, I really appreciate it. I am a new cub master and I will be making these for our Arrow of Light awards.

  17. Hi, I am needing to make 4 Arrow of Light Awards, but I am having a hard time downloading you file. Could you email me it?

  18. Is there a better location where I can download this file? This link doesn’t appear to be good and just leads to a lot of adware/malware.

    Thank you.

    Tara

  19. We have done a plaque that is very similar except we have been cutting the Arrow of Light Symbol out of 1/4″ mdf or masonite, painting it yellow and attaching it to a dark blue board. This makes it a nice 3d plaque. We put the hooks that hold the arrow in the arrow on the Arrow of light symbol rather than at the bottom of the board. We haven’t put the boys names on the front of them, but that would be a nice addition. Hand cutting them out of wood is time consuming and hard to get the lines straight, and having them laser cut is expensive. Maybe I’ll have to see if I can find someone locally who could cut the vinyl for less than we can do the wood. We really like the 3d look though. I’d post a picture if I had a way to. What size are you making them? Ours are about 7 3/4″ X 24″ for the blue board.

  20. Jana Leavitt says:

    I am interested in getting your silhouette of the arrow of light. I have tried to download it and it is not working. Let me know if I can get it from you

    Thanks
    Jana

  21. I would like to thank Char for originally posting this. I have been making these for the last couple of years for our Webelos. I hope Char is ok with this, but I am going to post a couple of dropbox links for anyone that can’t download the file from the original link:

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/z22tnlrgtru0o4i/Arrow%20of%20Light%20-%202%20Arrows.studio3?dl=0
    https://www.dropbox.com/s/cizigb4b88aad3e/Arrow%20of%20Light.studio?dl=0

    The first link is of two arrows on one piece of vinyl; the second was the original file I downloaded from this site. When you click on “Download” dropbox will ask you to either sign in or sign up…you can just click “No thanks, continue to download” and it will then download the file.

    The below link is what I adapted this project to be. These plaques are 1x6x30. You can make three plaques from an 8′ 1×6…you can of course do whatever size you want – I put a couple coats of clear-coat on the plaques after putting the Arrow of Light on to give it a more finished look and to help secure the Arrow of Light. I make the arrows myself from the following: 1/4″-3/8″ dowels (I would usually “dirty” them up with stain using a rag with very little stain on it as opposed to actually staining them like in the picture – “dirtying” them up makes them look a little more “authentic”); I ordered the arrow heads off of E-bay…I got a bunch of 25 (we have a lot of Cubs and I knew I’d go through them…down to my last few now) – I use a Dremel to cut out a groove in the end of the dowel and then secured the arrow head with artificial sinew (waxy string) from Hobby Lobby; I got the feathers from Hobby Lobby as well – I sliced the feathers in half then cut them all to the approximate same size and secured them with artificial sinew as well – I later learned that fletching tape made things much easier and quicker, but I would still use the artificial sinew for looks (there are countless videos on YouTube that can show you how to fletch an arrow); since the plaques are so large, I decided to put the Webelos’ names on the arrow with the date so that, if they chose, they could throw out the plaque and just keep the arrow as a long-term memento. I also liked the idea of putting the arrow in line with the Arrow of Light on the plaque. I have seen the arrows with the different colored tape and feathers hanging down…I was too lazy to go that far. Last time I priced these out, it cost me just under $10 a plaque/arrow. If you have to buy stain/clear coat for just a few, it will certainly increase the per item cost.

    https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/nfbuWaVEPp0mq2492hNIZ9JEEHTlSNWNitYJ61_MXb0=w276-h207-p-no

    If the links don’t work, please let me know and I will try to figure out a solution.

    I would like to thank Char again for originally posting this idea. Our Webelos have really enjoyed the plaques and I believe it has helped push a few of them to complete their Arrow of Light before moving on to Boy Scouts.

    Thanks,

    Dustin
    [email protected]

    • Thanks Dustin for your help!

    • Alisha B says:

      Thanks so much Char and Dustin! I tried to download from the original post but it was no longer posted. Our boys will have some great keepsakes for their arrow of light award thanks to you!!

    • Gretchen says:

      Thank you so much for posting these Dustin! I really appreciate it! My son won’t be at this stage for a while since we are just finishing up our Tiger year, but it will be great to put my DIY skills to the test to make these for our boys when their time comes. Thanks again to you and the original creator for sharing and making them available!

  22. what if i don’t have a sihoutte? is that like a cricut? can we buy them pre cut from you?

  23. Do you happen to have this arrow image saved as a vectored .eps file that I could download?

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  26. An impressive share! I have just forwarded this onto a co-worker who had been conducting
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  27. Having trouble downloading a file for the silhouette. Is there a file available I could take to a sign shop and have them do the vinyl for me? Thanks…

  28. This reminds me of the TV show Louie where his children are very white but his wife is African American, CK mentioned that they auditioned women of every race, and she happened to shine the most, so he didn’t care what significance it had to the

  29. Angela lusco says:

    I can’t download this

  30. I cannot download the file :(

  31. I love this, but I am also unable to download the image…my email is [email protected] if you have the file handy. Thanks!

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