I Saw The Sign

Happy Thursday all!  Thursdays at the Crazy Navy Wives houses mean fresh mini donuts, and Starbucks!  Well, at least during the summer.  Anyone else have a reason to look forward to Thursdays?

Yesterday I promised our first tutorial, so here goes.  Melanie and I decided to make signs.  Warning:  Can become addicting, and quickly run out of wall space.

We found a wonderful new shopping location (and who doesn't love those) called Skagit County Salvage.  If you need something for the home, you can find it there. At affordable prices.  We're married to Sailors, not Trumps.  Although, I frequently tell my hubby, next time, I'm marrying for money!

                       Here was our haul for our first trip.  Those lovely pieces of wood are actually cabinetry.  Melanie also bought some gorgeous tile for her kitchen backsplash!  (Can't wait to see that!)  And a glass brick, for another project later.

We decided to make signs out of the wood pieces.  So first things first.  Think of what you want your sign to say.  I have so many quotes running through my head, it's hard to pick.  Too many ideas can change a project as you go, as I'm sure you will learn on this blog.

Now there are several ways to do signs, we're just going to focus on a couple today.  Using my wonderful, amazing, life-altering, fantastic, awesome... Cricut, ( I could go on, but I won't) we cut the letters out of vinyl, and placed them on the board.  You could also use any type of sticker, that is easily peeled off.  I don't recommend paper stickers.

                         Now Melanie, being the creative genius that she is, also used the outside of the vinyl as a stencil.  Of course, I forgot to get a picture of it, but I will show you how it turned out.

Now, if you don't have a Cricut, I'm very sorry, just kidding, I have another technique for you.  I know, I know, they're expensive, but so worth the investment.  First paint your board.  When it is dry, pick a font, and size in Microsoft Word.  Type up your saying, and print it out.

Flip the page over, and scribble all over the letters with pencil.

Flip the page back over, place it on your wood where you want the letters to go, and firmly trace the letters.

                                    I know, I never was good at following the lines.

It should leave a faint impression of the letters on your board.  Before I received my baby, I mean my Cricut, I used this technique with great success.  Even on painted wood.

                                  As you can see, it is very faint, so you may want to trace it again.  Then just fill in the letters, with a paint of your choice, and a small brush.

Now back to the Cricut way.  Paint over your entire board, stickers and all, with the paint of your choice, or a stain, like I did.

                                       Melanie used Annie Sloan's chalk paint for her signs.

                               I used a stain.  The larger one, is an oil-based stain, which I prefer the appearance of.  The smaller one is a water-based stain, which is much easier to work with.  I chose the oil-based.

                               If you use an oil-based stain, Mineral Spirits are an absolute must for clean up purposes.

Here is how they look painted over.

                               Once again, a lot of mess, because I can't stay in the lines.  I could have taped it, but that would have been too easy, so I had to sand off my mess.

                            Melanie did much better.

Now, wait for the paint to dry.  The stain takes about an hour to dry, and I did two coats.  I painted on the stain, gave it a couple minutes to set in, then wiped off the excess, allowing each coat to completely dry before adding another.

Now peel off the stickers, and....

                                 Ta da!

Melanie finished her chalk painted sign off with a beautiful new hemp oil wood finish, that gave both the wood, and the chalk paint, a nice sheen.

I used an everyday furniture wax, you can find in most any store, to seal my wood, and stain.

In case you wanted to see how the other side of Melanie's sign came out, here's a picture.

                                       Lovely, isn't it?

If you have any questions, or I missed anything, which I'm sure to do, feel free to comment below, or send an email to twocrazynavywives@hotmail.com.  Thanks for reading.