DIY Signs!

Hey all! I know it's been FOREVER since I've blogged...but recently I've been crafting my brains out, so I figured I'd share what I've been up to!


For today: DIY wood signs.


What you'll need:
wood
paint
printer
ribbon, copper wire, etc (sometime to hang it with)


First, find a piece of scrap wood. I got lucky in that my work has scrap wood everywhere! Paint the wood whatever color you want. 


TIP: If you go to Home Depot, they have what's called "oops" paint for SUPER cheap. It's just paint that didn't come out to the color that the person wanted. I found this green for only $0.50!!


Next, decide what word you want to put on your sign. For this one, I was making a gift for Ryan's step-mom, Lynne. Everyone calls her Bunny. Bunny and Ryan's dad feed raccoons outside their house every night...more like the raccoons started eating their cat food and so they just kept refilling it! So for Lynne's birthday I wanted to make her something super special and personal. So I came up with the idea of making a sign that said "Bunny's Bistro" with a picture of a raccoon on it. 


Open a word document and add in word art. Type whatever you want your sign to say, play with the font and the size until it's perfect. Next, click on the "draw" menu in your tool bar and click "rotate or flip" and then "flip horizontal". This will make your word print backwards.


Cut out around the word and place ink down on your painted wood. With a wet paint brush, wet down the paper with your word on it until it sticks, like so:

Using the back of a marker or a paint brush, press down on the letters to push the ink onto the wood. Don't peel it back until you're done with all the letters! (The B has been pressed in this picture).


It should look like this:

Next, use a small paint brush to fill in the letters. For the raccoon in the corner, I printed a picture off of Google images, cut it out, traced it onto the sign, and the eyeballed the rest.


(This sign started off way too big, so I had someone help me cut it).


For this sign I used ribbon to hang it. Just drilled two holes in the top and looped the ribbon through!

Done! It was so easy! And Lynne LOVED it! So much, that instead of hanging it outside, she wanted it in her kitchen:

It was so much fun making something so personal for someone! And the whole thing cost me under $5.00! I definitely plan on making more signs in the future....enjoy!