wall decor Archives - Cassie Smallwood

I'm sure you've all seen those super cute farmhouse signs all over Pinterest, Etsy, and on the show Fixer Upper. I've checked some of them out and they can come with a hefty price tag! I figured why not try to make my own since my sad walls are still needing some decorations. So today I'm going to show you 2 different ways you can make your own DIY painted wood signs! Here's what you'll need for your DIY painted wood signs: This post contains affiliate links. See my disclosure here. Wood- I bought cedar fence planks at Home Depot, but you can use whatever you have or buy Cricut Cutting Machine Adhesive Vinyl Cutting Mat- I used this 12x24 one so I could make a 22" long sign Cricut Weeding Tool and Scraper Vinyl Transfer Tape Chalk paint or craft paint Stain Brushes Saw Tooth Picture Hangers My 2 wood planks after I cut them The Stencil Method DIY Painted Wood Signs First, paint or stain your wood so it can dry while you are designing your sign. For this sign, you'll want to go into your Cricut Design Space and create whatever design you want on your sign and cut it out of vinyl. I used the free font Bromello from Dafont for this sign. Instead of weeding how you normally do, you'll weed out the letters to leave a stencil of your design. Be sure to leave all of the small pieces that are the centers of the letters. My weeded stencil Now use your transfer paper to pick up your whole stencil and apply it to your wood. (Note: Your wood will need at least a tiny bit of gloss for the vinyl to stick, at least a satin finish. It doesn't have to be super glossy. If you are using chalk paint or stain, you'll want to apply some sort of sealer over it or you're going to end up very frustrated because the vinyl just won't stick. Take it from me. I learned the hard way.) Use your scraper tool to really adhere the stencil to the wood. Peel up the transfer paper leaving the stencil on the wood. At this point I like to go around every edge of the letters and make sure the stencil is pressed down really well. If anything is sticking up, the paint will bleed under it. Now it's time to apply the paint you want for your design into the stencil. Let it dry and remove the stencil. If everything was pressed down well, it should look perfect. If you have any small bleeds you can try to touch up with a similar paint or marker, but hopefully you don't have any and it's perfection! Now you can attach your saw tooth hanger onto the back and hang it up. The wood I have stands up really well too. So you could also sit this on a table for displaying rather than hanging it up. The Reverse Stencil Method DIY Painted Wood Signs For this sign, you'll want to paint the front of your wood the color that you want your letters or design to be. In my case, I want my letters to be black. So I've painted the front of my wood with black paint. While that's drying, make your design in Design Space and cut it on vinyl. I used the free font Waltograph from Dafont. Here's a trick for letter spacing in Design Space that I didn't know in the beginning. Sometimes your letters aren't equally spaced. I don't know why this happens, but it's super annoying. If you select the words and click Ungroup. Then you can move each letter individually to where you want it. Once you're done, select your words, click Group and then click Weld. This will put it all back together as one and if it's a script will attach any letters that are touching each other to make them one piece. Weed your design as you normally would if you were attaching vinyl to something. Weeded vinyl Use your transfer paper to pick up your design and attach it to the wood (remember it needs to have a tiny bit of shine to it for the vinyl to stick). Use your scraper tool to press it onto the wood firmly and peel off the transfer paper leaving the design on the wood. Go around each letter with your fingers and be sure every edge is stuck down really well. Use the paint you want the main part of your sign to be and paint over the entire surface and edges of the wood. Vinyl was applied and white paint over entire surface Let this dry and then remove the vinyl pieces. If you have any spots that bled, just use your paint and a small brush to touch up. Sign before distressing I used a small piece of sand paper and distressed mine for a more rustic look. Attach your saw tooth hanger if you're hanging your wood sign. The Cheater Method The third way is for if you don't have a Cricut or other cutting machine, Morgan from My Pear Tree Home shares an excellent tutorial to achieve the same results with her cheater method. Check it out! It's super simple! Here's another wood sign tutorial you should see for another option for making your own signs with vinyl. Other posts you might like 12 Crafts To Give Your Mom For Mother's Day DIY Adventure Fund Jar 49 Sewing Projects To Make And Sell