I must apologize!  I posted a teaser about this sign I made for Cottages & Bungalows and said I would post the tutorial after the issue was off newsstands.  Well…that was in August, so I think it’s safe to say that those issues have been pulled.  So, at long last, here it is…

What you’ll need:

• 12” wide pine board cut to desired length
• Acrylic craft paint (at least three colors)
• 2 ½” sash brush
• 1” artist brush, 1.0 liner brush, ½” angled shader
• Computer
• Printer and printer paper
• Scissors
• Tape
• Graphite transfer paper
• Ballpoint pen
• 80 grit sand paper
• Dark brown soft furniture wax
• Round brush or cotton cloth
• Clean cotton cloth
• Drill with driver bits
• Tape measure or ruler
• 2 D-ring hangers
• Hammer and nails

How to do it:

Cut a piece of 12” wide pine board to desired length or use a piece of scrap lumber.  If wood is new, hit it with a hammer and scratch it with nails to rough it up.  Using a 2 ½” sash brush, paint the board in desired color.  It is best to use a flat or matte acrylic or milk paint.  (I used MMSMP in Boxwood.)  Allow paint to dry.

Use a word processing program on the computer to design text for the sign.  Sizing it to fit on the board may take some trial and error, so print only one or two letters at a time until the right font size is determined.  Print the letters.  For smaller letters and words, cut out and tape them together.  Place graphite transfer paper under the lettering and trace outline with a ballpoint pen.  Make sure lettering is level on the sign before tracing.  One piece of transfer paper can be used repeatedly for entire sign.

 That’s it!  This is a great project to do with free scraps of wood and can be completed in an afternoon.  I love projects like that.

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