Wired & Wonderful Wooden Sign

Welcome to Wooden Sign class 101! I am in love with creating these little pieces. Signs can be stuck nearly anywhere, hanging off a doorknob, on the wall, outside on the porch, in the office... the possibilities are endless!  


Here is a step-by-step for my latest project, a West Virginia-theme two-section sign.  I currently sell hand painted WV theme items in the Addison Visitor's Center, located in Webster Springs, WV.  It's my little way of sending a shout-out to my hometown folk, who have serious pride in their home - and their football team, the WVU Mountaineers.  The possibilities are endless with wooden signs, which are fully customizable - so go grab some wood and get started!

Two-Section Wooden Sign

What You Need:

Two pieces of lightweight craft wood with a base coat of paint (I always use a chocolate brown shade), sand paper, safety goggles, power drill, your design on paper, small paint brushes, craft wire, scissors, decorative ribbon, acrylic paint (in this project I used Navy Blue, 14K Gold, and Antique White by Delta Ceramcoat.)

  

1) Sand the edges of wooden pieces for a worn look. 2) Lay your design on top of the wood, and trace with a ball point ink pen - press hard, to "carve" the design into the wood. 3) Paint background designs first; my signature "stamp" on WV items is the state image.  Even after painting it, I can still see the carved design I traced earlier.

 

4) Begin painting the design; I painted letters with a two-dimensional "shadow" effect.  I used the navy blue shade for my first layer. 5) I added an antique white layer on top of the blue; I decided to stop with just one layer of the antique white, which looks a little imperfect over the blue.  This has more of a worn, country feel to it - so i left as is!  Imperfect sometimes IS perfect.

 

6) This is where my favorite phases of the project begin! Break out the power drill, and using a very small bit, drill holes in your pieces of wood.  For the top piece, drill holes at all four corners. For the bottom piece, drill two holes at the top that line up with the bottom holes of the first piece. Use your safety goggles to prevent sawdust from getting in your eyeballs! 7) Cut craft wire: 1 long piece for the hanger, and two shorter pieces that will be used to connect the top piece to the bottom piece.  I love to make my wire curly before assembling the pieces. To curl wire, wind around an ink pen or paint brush , slide off the tip, then gently pull apart so that kinks are spread wide enough to reach from one drilled hole to the other.  8) Thread wire through holes to assemble pieces together.  twist ends of wire on back of pieces into several small kinks to secure.  

Tie a few pieces of ribbon on the wire hanger, and...

TA-DA!

There you have it!  A simple, country sign to hang and proudly display your state pride! 

If you're stopping in from my Facebook page and you live in the Webster Springs area, this sign will be available to purchase at the Addison Visitor's Center in August.  

If you're stopping in from the weekend DIY blog hops, WELCOME!  I try to blog about one project per week, so stay tuned!

Here are a couple of my most recent projects:

Love is Sweet Sign

Blogging Queen Sign - for Giveaway!

My Etsy Shop