´Tis the season for the holidays that make me warm on the inside! It is very ironic that I love fall and winter so much, but I despise being cold. I love everything about this time of the year from the clothing, the crisp clean air, the food (of course), and the décor.
I love to decorate, especially this time of the year, so this month I have vowed to spend time every weekend making something new to add to my holiday décor. Including children in the fun is always necessary, as I have three small, wonderful, ready to learn and helpful kids of my own.
This weekend I decided I would make a wood sign and canvas for Thanksgiving and Christmas. We had the perfect wood boards available, from taking our daughter’s bunk beds apart. We had used them for extra support for the top bunk.
Usually if you drive around, great scrap wood is lying everywhere. Yes, I am that woman. My husband is not always thrilled when I have these adventures, but he always loves the outcome. I have yet to do a project where buying wood was necessary.
My front porch is lacking décor and, having an inviting front porch area to me makes the way for the inside of a home.
There are many different methods of making a wood sign, depending on how you want the final look to turn out and how much time can be invested. Personally, I end up taking a little more time with these projects, so they will come out right the first time.
If the desired results are rustic, shabby chic, then most likely you will want to have more of a polished but imperfect distressed finish. There are many different ways to go about the lettering on your sign if you are not going to free hand the sign; Today, however, free-handing is the method I’m choosing.
A virtually free way to incorporate black lettering is to use a Sharpie marker, and make your own stencil. Depending on the size of the lettering, more than one Sharpie should be available.
When creating a stencil, many font websites allow words to be typed in and then previewed. At this point, to make a stencil change the size of the lettering, trace it on paper, and cut the words out. This is tedious but allows many styles of font to be available, and once again, it is free.
If a painted sign is what you are wanting, simply type the phrase into a document on Word and print it out. This will allow you to use small or larger lettering. After printing, figure out the placement of the papers out on the board as you would like. Using a ballpoint pen, not a fine point, trace the letters with a little bit of force behind the pen. This will create an indentation in the wood of lines traced, which will allow the paint to dip into the indentation and stop, avoiding uneven edges.
If distressing the sign, there are many different options. One way is to combine paint and stain. Paint the entire surface and allow the paint to dry completely. After the drying period, sand down different areas of the paint, with some concentration on the corners and edges. I even like to round all my edges slightly if needed to eliminate that perfect cut look.
The distressing can be as heavy or lite as you like. Afterwards, rub a stain color of choice over the entire wood piece. Wipe it off quickly. The sanded areas will allow more stain to penetrate, while the painted sections will look a bit like old color instead of fresh color.
If you wish to skip the sanding all together the Vaseline option works wonderfully as well, simply choose the color you would like your sign to be, and before painting/staining apply Vaseline all around the edges and areas where distressing is preferred. The Vaseline does not allow the paint to penetrate or dry; therefore, after everything is dry simply wipe the entire surface down. The areas where Vaseline is applied, the paint will rub completely off.
Making your own décor for the holiday is not only fun, but also rewarding. It saves money, caters to individual style, and makes memories. I hope that my children and I, and possibly any future grandchildren, are able to use the decor for years to come.
If you have any further questions or need ideas on décor with wood, feel free to email me.
April Sherrill is a staff writer for the Hamilton County Herald. Contact her at april@dailydata.com.