Not too long ago I made a sign something like this, only in different dimensions and one of my readers asked if I would do a tutorial.
I made another sign, the one below, earlier this week and I thought I would show you how I did it. I am not an expert at this or anything of the sort. I did it this way and it works, that is all I can claim.
Last Winter we tore our kitchen apart in order to re-do it and I ended up with lots of wood. So this is made out of reclaimed wood. I think this particular piece used to be a part of one of the baseboards in the kitchen. Perfect size for what I needed.
I cut my piece of wood to fit the space that I am making this sign for, I think it is about 30" long by about 8" wide.
Then I gave it two coats of white paint, just a white Behr paint. Be sure to let it dry well in between coats.
When it was completely dry, I laid the letters that I had on top of it and just drew around them with a pencil, being careful to align them perfectly.
I bought these cardboard letters at a garage sale last year for about a dollar.
I got this drawing off of the Internet, not sure where, I drew it onto a clear plastic sleeve. You can either put the plastic sleeve, (this one is for paper inserts) right on your monitor screen and draw it right on that or sometimes I draw it freehand. After putting carbon paper under it, I positioned it on my board and drew, pressing hard, over the lines. The carbon did a good job of reproducing the image.
At this point you can draw around each letter with a black sharpie, or you can just begin to paint the letter with black paint. If your hand is quite steady, I find that just painting it by hand is much easier. But when I first started, the sharpie was an asset.
I use black craft paint and as you can see, I used a wide end brush, it made the job go much faster.
When I got to the drawing of the hand, I used a fine point paint brush. It made the job easier.
Once it is completely dry, you can take a sanding block to the whole sign and sand the life out of it, depending, of course, on how distressed you want it to look. I like for a sign to look aged, but still be readable.
To make the edges look black, I put a tiny bit of the craft paint on a piece of paper towel and go very lightly over the sanded edges. Quickly wipe off what you don't like, using water to take off excess paint works, too, if you do it right away.
So there you have it, a distressed book sign. I made this one for my daughter, she loved the one I made for myself and asked for one, how could I say no? They are quick and easy to make. If you have any questions, I will try to answer them, but remember, I am a novice, too. I usually see something I like and go about figuring out how it is done.
Hope your day is summery still, it is very stormy and mildly cool where I am.
.jpg)
.jpg)
