Easy to Make Fancy Hand Lettered Sign

If you've ever wanted one of those cute wooden signs you've seen all over the internet,  here's an easy way to make your very own.  You can be fancy too!

I ended up framing mine with a very simple frame, but the sign would be cute without the frame as well.

To recreate my sign, you will need:
A piece of wood cut to the size of sign you are wanting.  (Mine is 13 1/4" x 5 3/4")
Bromello font - download it for free HERE.
Paint of your choice and black for the lettering
Foam paint brush
Fine/small paint brush
Pencil
Optional for the Frame:
1 x 2 wood
Wood Stain of your choice
Chop saw
Nail Gun

For my size sign, I used the Bromello font and printed it at 288 points using my home printer.  It did not fit all on one page, so I pieced it together using some scotch tape.

I used an acrylic paint for my base coat and a chalk paint for the top coat.  I don't suppose it matters what type of paint you use, its just what I had on hand, so that's what I used.  By the way, this chalk paint is what I used to color the inside of the drawers of my bedside table.  Check that out HERE.

Using the lighter color paint and a foam brush, I painted a really good covering of paint over the entire top surface of the wood.  Let that dry well.

Next, using the chalk paint, I painted on a light coat so that some of the lighter color would show through.  I wanted two colors because I like to distress my projects, its just a preference, not a must! :)

You can see above how I pieced the printed letters together to make one long word.  With your printed letters flipped to the back side, grab a pencil and heavily color over the printed letters.

WARNING: The printed letters will transfer to whatever they are laying on. Luckily mine was on my hutch top which is porcelain, so it came right off.  You may want to put something down under the letters when doing this step.

After you have the backside covered with pencil, carefully position your letters on your painted board and secure with a small amount of scotch tape to hold it in place.

Using a pencil, trace the outside perimeter of each letter pressing firmly as you go.

Carefully remove the printed letters and you should have traced the word you chose on to your board.  If needed, go back in with your pencil and fill in any spots that didn't transfer well.

The part where I overlapped the paper while piecing it together, didn't do to well, so I just went over it so I could see it better.  Next time, I will try and make the paper piecing a lot less thick and not have so much overlapping itself. Lesson learned!

Now for the fun part, painting the letters.  Use a fine tipped paint brush and black acrylic paint and fill in the traced lines of the word.

The reason I chose the Bromello font is because its edges are not crisp and true, they are shaky and uneven...just like my painting skills! Ha!

You can leave your sign just like this, or you can follow my lead and distress it and add a frame.

To distress my sign, I took it out to the shop and used our mouse sanders with a very fine grit paper and went over top of it and all around the edges so that some of the lighter color paint would show through.

The frame is so easy. Just measure your sign from side to side.  Mine is 13 1/4" so I cut two pieces of 1 x 2 at that length.  Then, lay the sign and your two cut long pieces down and measure top to bottom.  Mine measures 7 1/4" so I cut two pieces of 1 x 2 at that length.  Now, stain or paint your frame if you'd like.  Lastly, using the nail gun, I asked my honey to nail it all together for me because I did not want to ruin my sign after all my hard work! I'm not the best with the nail gun yet. :)

Want to see what we've been up to recently at The Clover House?
Porcelain Wood Look Tile Floor
Builder Grade Door Makeover
DIY Perfect Baseboards
DIY Barn Wood Light Fixture

It doesn't have to be done all at once.  It is a slow process in the works! C-ya next time!