Hand Lettered Painted Sign

Can you believe it? I finally have another project for Make Your Monday! For years, I've been looking for the perfect thing to go in that tiny, narrow space between the stove and the microwave. Nothing would fit! Anything I thought would work would either be too large or two small. I finally decided that I would have to make something that would fit just right, so recently I tried my hand at making my own hand lettered sign to fit the space. While my sign isn't perfect, I really love the way it turned out. In concept, it is really easy to do. In practice {holding your hand super steady after consuming a couple of cups of coffee}, it's a little hard. But all those little mistakes you may make will simply add to the overall charm of the piece - or at least that's what I kept telling myself!

I started with a piece of 5 inch wide pine, about 20 inches long. I wanted my sign to have a "frame", so I also cut down 4 pieces narrow trim moulding to add around the perimeter.


I didn't use nails. I simply glued the trim pieces into place with Liquid Nail for small projects.


So that the trim would stay in place while drying, I secured them using duct tape. A little overkill? Yes, but it was the only tape I could find at the moment. Why is it that tape can never be found when you need it? The children always seem to scurry off with it like little squirrels.


I placed another piece of pine on top along with a couple of cans of paint to add some weight to the drying trim pieces, wiping off any excess glue that squeezed out the sides.


When the trim was dry and after priming the wood, I used one of my favorite spray paints, Oil Rubbed Bronze by Rustoleum, to coat the entire surface and then sanded the edges for a slightly distressed look. {I forgot to take photos of the painting and sanding step, but you get the idea...}

The secret of creating an *almost* perfect hand painted sign is to simply type up some text in your selected font and desired size in Microsoft Word, or a similar program. Then print it out and secure it with tape to whatever surface you are painting. My word "COTTAGE" printed out in two pages, so I had to tape them together and trim off the excess. And here you see my squirrels brought some tape back, though it was masking tape that I really needed.


With a pen, I traced the outline of the text, taking care to press down firmly. The idea is to press down hard enough so that an indentation is left in the wood underneath.


Like this...


And now, the challenging part - painting in the lettering. I found that a very small stiff, angled or flat small brush worked best. I just used some wall paint I had on hand to paint the letters. It took me a while, but I finally finished it. Not too shabby for my first attempt! I think I'm going to invest in some better brushes before my next sign.


I wanted to age my sign a little more, so armed with some sandpaper, antiquing glaze, and a foam brush, I went to work.


I sanded over the text, roughing it up a bit.



Next, I applied some antiquing glaze right over the top...


and then immediately wiped it off.


Voila! There's my hand lettered sign in it's new home! Now the problem is how to hang things on brick without using nails or screws. I've had some great tips and advice today from my Facebook and Twitter peeps, and I'll share those with you a little later.:) I think it will look much nicer hanging than resting.


But even resting, it still seems to be just what was needed for that tiny little space, don't you think?


This was my first sign, but Susie Harris does sign making for a living and was generous enough to recently share her techniques on her blog. Be sure to check out her beautiful work while you're there!

This week, I'm linking up to:
Make Your Monday @ Twice Remembered
Make it for Monday @ Cottage Instincts
Metamorphosis Monday @ Between Naps on the Porch
Funky Junk Interiors
Just Something I Whipped Up Monday @ The Girl Creative
Made it Monday @ The Persimmon Perch
Made By You Monday @ Skip to My Lou
It's So Very Creative @ It's So Very Cheri
Making the World Cuter Monday @ Making the World Cuter
DIY Day @ A Soft Place to Land
Get Your Craft On @ Today's Creative Blog
Trash to Treasure Tuesday @ Reinvented
Power of Paint @ Domestically Speaking
Works for Me Wednesday @ We are That Family
Transformation Thursday @ The Shabby Chic Cottage
Strut Your Stuff Thursday @ Somewhat Simple
Thrifty Thursday @ Tales from Bloggeritaville
Show and Tell Friday @ My Romantic Home
Frugalicious Friday @ Finding Fabulous