Pinspired Project #11 - Complete!

Project #11 is complete!

I have wanted to tackle a sign for quite a while, but have been intimidated by the whole painting letters process. Intricately detailed things aren't my strong point. My best vision of what my sign would look like was equal to my 5 year old's attempts at writing 5 words that rhyme with pat!

Gathering materials for this wasn't that difficult. I had made a stained wood backdrop for my Christmas mantle last  year so there were a few pieces of already stained, cut wood in the garage collecting dust. The one piece that isn't being used to level a basketball goal or bales of hay isn't stained on one long side and has wood glue residue on the other. It also has a nick in one corner. Since this was a project that could be a total failure, I wasn't all that concerned with this flawed piece of wood!

My children need lots of motivation when it comes to homework. Can I get a witness? I have wanted to put some sort of motivational words on the wall in the homework area, but haven't gotten around to it yet. Two birds could be killed with this one stone - a sign attempt and a motivational quote IF the attempt was successful! The words on my sign would read "Always do your best."

Here's what I did:

I printed out the words I wanted to use on my sign using Microsoft Publisher. I formatted the fonts so that they would print just as an outline. It took me a while to choose a font that I liked and to get the words to fit on the piece of wood.

To transfer the words to the wood, I used a ball point pin and traced around the outline of my letters, pressing as firmly as I could so that the wood would be indented with the outline of the letters. I had to go around some of the letters two or three times to make sure the outlines were visible.

Because I was still nervous about my ability to paint the letters, I took a pencil and traced inside of the indented letter outlines on the wood. I wanted to make sure I could really see the boundaries of my letters!

I debated whether or not I would use acrylic paint and a paint brush or a paint pen to fill in the letters on the wood. I made a trip to Walmart to buy the supplies to use either.  I ended up using a fine point white paint pen. This part was much easier than I had anticipated it to be. I went over the letters again with the paint pen to make the letters stand out better.

Here's my finished project! I love how it turned out and can't wait to hang it up. I am already thinking about my next one. There are obviously a ton of great sign ideas on Pinterest.

Since this was the continuation of my previous post, you can find my pinspiration sources there.

Stay tuned for the finished product of my applique project. Fabric and shirts have been purchased!

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