Last week I shared my Simple 4th of July Mantel. I featured a few items that I created including my USA Map Sign on my mantel. Today I’m sharing a step by step tutorial for how to create your own DIY map sign.

Step 1: Grab some wood and paint it your base coat. In this instance I used some smooth plywood and white paint.

Step 2: Put down Frog Tape to create the stripes. I used two strips of Frog Tape to create one stripe.

Step 3: Paint in between the tape with red craft paint to create the red stripes.

Step 4: Once the red paint is dry, remove the tape and reveal your crisp lines.

Step 5: Cut out a vinyl stencil. I used my Silhouette to cut our an image of the US and used the “negative” part of the vinyl (Meaning I discarded the image of the US and kept the outline of the image).

Step 6: Use Mod Podge to go around the edge of where the vinyl meets the wood. This will help with any paint bleeding from the blue paint.

Step 7: Paint inside the vinyl stencil with blue paint to create the image of the US.

Step 8: Remove the vinyl once the blue paint is dry to reveal your beautiful sign.

I did end up giving the whole sign some distressing, not a lot but just enough to weather it a bit.

I really love the way that the sign turned out. I also love that when I get an idea of home decor that I want to have I don’t have to search and search for it….I can just create it myself! I think that’s one of the best parts of being crafty!

The USA Map Sign looks awesome up on my mantel for the 4th of July. I also think this project could be adjusted to show off any state or country. So for those of you like me who are transplants or military nomads….having this up in your home would be a great way to honor your home state.

Do you like to decorate for the 4th of July? Why not create a USA Map Sign for your home?

Linking up to these great link parties!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You can check out the post about my Simple 4th of July Mantel to see all the details!

We have been in our new home going on 5 months now and I am still putting the finishing touches on things. I keep kicking myself for it not being “finished” but on the other hand I know that it takes time to completely settle into a new home. During the past few months I’ve also been busy crafting for others, shows, and my new booth. So every now and then I am squeezing in some crafting for myself. I finally completed our bookcase and got our last boxes unpacked; the next thing on the list was finishing my kitchen decor.

Here’s how I made my DIY Kitchen Food Signs…..

There are some large spaces above our kitchen cabinets that were just begging for some decor. I attempted to put some random stuff up there….but it ended up cheapening the look of the kitchen and cabinetry. It just didn’t feel right. I decided that I wanted more of a streamlined unified look. So I decided to create my own kitchen decor.

We had a scrap 1×6 board out in the garage that I knew would be perfect. I just measured it out and decided what I wanted my 4 sign lengths to be. Since my cabinets were two different sizes I ended up making the signs two different lengths.

I went back and forth between wanting to paint the boards or stain them. In the end I decided to grab some dark stain that I had and use it on the boards. I used some Minwax stain in Espresso Satin.

After a couple coats of the wood stain (and dry time) I cut out some vinyl with my silhouette. Instead of weeding out the “negative” part of the vinyl and keeping the “positive”, I kept the negative to use as a stencil. I placed the vinyl on the wood signs using some transfer tape. I wanted to try and prevent as much paint bleeding as possible, so I used some Mod Podge first on the vinyl stencil.

Then I used some craft paint on the stencil once the Mod Podge was dry. I used some Buttermilk paint because I wanted it to look aged and not crisp white. When that was dry it was time to remove the vinyl. Now I’m gonna be honest with you….sometimes projects go exactly as planned and sometimes they don’t. When they go wrong they either go horribly wrong and the whole thing is a wash OR they end up actually being better because of it. In this instance the mistake made things better.

For some reason when I went to remove the vinyl the paint started coming up with it. Especially in the corners. I had to push the paint back down to even get the vinyl started. At first I was terrified that the whole thing was ruined. However as I continued to peel the vinyl off most of the lettering was sticking to the sign with only little bits getting pulled off. So what I had in the end were some distressed looking lettering. Which is what I really wanted anyway.

I sprayed the signs with some matte clear spray to finish them off. Once they were dry I pulled out the trusty ole step stool and popped these babies on top of the cabinets. I placed the two smaller signs over the two skinnier cabinets and the larger signs over the larger cabinets.

In the closeups you can see some of the letter variations and “flaws”. *love*

The faux greenery was purchased at Michael’s using coupons. I wanted to keep things simple on top of  cabinets, so I added the greenery to all of the cabinets in hopes of keeping things looking unified. I like the color and texture that they add up there.

For the words I ended up going with Milk, Eggs, Sugar, and Flour. I liked the idea of using very basic and simple words for the signs. Almost with the idea that they very well could of been salvaged signs used in an old market. Words that invoked homey thoughts of gathering and baking together in the kitchen.

It may just be me but I feel like they are an awesome mix of vintage and sophistication. Maybe that’s not the best word….but I just feel like they all look so polished and nice up there.

I really can’t lie. I kinda love them.

Ok now for a question…..would you add another sign above the pantry? Or leave well enough alone?

Thanks for checking out my DIY Kitchen Food Signs, I’d love to hear what you think!!!

After Christmas everything seems a bit bare and lackluster. This includes retail. When it’s time to remove all of my Christmas items for sale from my booth, things suddenly look very plain. So amongst all the other items I’m working on, I wanted to include some fun Valentine’s Day themed items.

I have always been a fan of the saying “All You Need is Love” made famous by the Beatles. It may be naive, it may be whimsical, but I love it.

I didn’t do a photo tutorial for this sign, however if you want to see how I make my wood signs you can check out my tutorial here!

I did a red and white sign and a black and white sign. One more of a traditional Valentine’s day sign and maybe one that makes a better every day reminder.  I gave them both a pretty good sanding and distressing.

I’ll be bringing them to my booth soon to add some love to the place! Hopefully they will love my “All You Need is Love” Wood Signs : )

Are you decorating for Valentine’s Day?

If you’ve been following my blog for awhile you know all about my Fence Board Signs. I love making them for different seasons and holidays. They are so fun and the options are endless. Since I have a big holiday show coming up I wanted to make some Christmas themed fence board signs, but I wanted to try something new this year.

In the past I stuck with just a simple phrase on the board but this go around I turned it into my Candy Cane Fence Board Sign.

I started out with a simple fence board from Home Depot. You can pick one up for less that $2. Most of them are pretty rough, which if that is the look you are going for is just fine. However, I plain mine down a bit to loose some of the roughness. Sanding will work too.

Since I was making the board into a candy cane the two colors I was working with was white and red. I decided to paint the whole board white, it helped “prime” the board and also take care of the white stripes.

Then it was time to prep the board for the red stripes. I grabbed my Frog Tape *love this stuff* and started taping things off. I slanted all of the tape to make it look like a true candy cane’s swirl of colors.

I spaced out the stripes and went down the whole length of the board. Be sure to press the tape down well along the way to prevent paint bleeding as much as possible. Remember if your board is rough, there still may be some bleeding but if you want a rough look it will be fine!

Finally it was time to add the red stripes. I just used some red craft paint that I had on hand and a foam brush to dab the paint on. It took a few light coats to get the color that I wanted.

Then it was time to add in the lettering. I cut out some vinyl using my Silhouette. Well actually it was contact paper (cheaper and easier for my to justify using as stencils which will just be thrown away). I weeded out the actual letters and kept the rest. Using transfer tape I put the vinyl on the board and burnished it down.

I wanted the lettering to stand out amongst the stripes so I went with black. Again just using some craft paint and a foam brush. I tried to be very careful filling in the letters with paint, trying to dab and not drag the brush.

When the black paint was dry I removed the vinyl to reveal beautiful lettering. I love the font!

All it needed was a couple hangers on the back and it was done!

Ah love it!

I can’t quite figure out if I love the candy cane stripes or the beautiful “Merry Christmas” the most. Ok, maybe just all of it is perfection!

I sure hope that my customers love it as much as I do.

Wouldn’t it be perfect on a mantel or adorning your Christmas porch? Where would you put this Candy Cane Fence Board Sign in your home?

Linking up to these great link parties!!!