Create Beautiful Wooden Signs For Cheap

September 19, 2018

I love signs.

Can you ever have enough??? LOL (my husband would say yes!)

But they are like the bumper sticker of life!

Sooooo many good sayings!!!!

Sooooo many good colors!!!

Well have you ever considered making your own?

If you love them...or love to give them as gifts, maybe you want to try your own hand at creating some custom ones! Yes you get to pick the size, color, font and overall design! How fun!

Making signs for me usually starts with 'what can I find to make on with?' Old cabinet doors? Pallets? Leftover pine boards? What wood is sticking out the neighbor's trash??

I also love finding new wood on sale at my local hardware stores. And yes, I'll take the chipped, dented, dinged, scratched, not perfect stuff! Give me what all the other homeowners have picked over! I'll gladly take it!

In this project, I found some cheap planks at my local Walmart! And I paid less than $3! (I think is was $2.97 to be exact!) Whohoo! I found them in the craft section.

Now you know i'm not a brownie frownie lover. BUT I do think there is a place for brownie frownie! Like peeking through something painted!

Tip: If I wanted to recreate this look, all I would do is start with new wood and then use Junk Monkey Brown Antiquing Glaze. Or I could also create a more dramatic look by using the Junk Monkey Black Antiquing Glaze.

But buying this plank already in this look, saved me a step (not to mention the steps of cutting planks, or adding a hanger). So this is a win for me!

**NOTE: I made this project LIVE on our Facebook page! If you want to see it all go down on video, be sure to watch it here.

Let's grab our paints! I'm using Junk Monkey Antique Lace to lay some color on the sign. It really gives it a white wash kinda look. It's because I didn't load up my brush with a whole lot of paint. It's also because of the shabby chip brush I used.

 

This paint sticks to pretty much everything under the sun! It is water based and fun to use. It adhers to metal, glass, fake wood, real wood and so much more. I don't have to prime, or sand or strip this wood plank. Just grab a brush and go bananas!

And here is the best brush to use for a distressed, time-worn looking project..

I use them over and over and over and over again!

Once I've dragged a light layer of paint over the plank, now it's time to grab a stencil.

I get mine from all over and keep collecting them for my stencil stash!

I store them all in here.

If you want to grab one too...here is my affiliate link.

See all my favorite shabby painters tools here.

This book has many pages and holds my stencils like this:

See....tons of pages for all those stencils you collect.

Today I'm picking this stencil. I found it at Hobby Lobby and paid only 2.99 for it.

*Tip: Here's a cute one that's similar to what I'm using I found on Amazon. See them all here through my Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/2QIIRKM

So i'm not a big spender on stencils. I like to find them and use a coupon to help me save even more money. And then SAVE the stencils to use over and over again! Such a fun way to create one of a kind furniture!

Now I'm grabbing my Junk Monkey Black Velvet Chalky Style Paint for the stencil part. Because this paint is what I called a "chunky monkey", the thickness makes it amazing for stenciling! Look! No bleed through or weird drips!

Looks awesome right???? I swear stencils make me excited every time I lift one off a project!! Here's an even closer look!

And remember with plastic stencils, as long as you keep it in good shape (get that binder!) you can use it over...and over...and over again! Yay! Signs for everyone!

So I added what we call around these parts affectionately the "eyeliner" effect! It's basically putting your shabby brush on an angle to catch the edge to give it an antiqued look. See the Black Velvet around the edges?

Now you can grab a sandblock like I use, and do any distressing you might want.

Yes I have quite the collection of sandblocks! I did a vlog recently on our YouTube Channel showing how I reuse them! Go check it out here.

Now put that sign on a wreath, your mantel, make and sell them at your next vendor fair, put it as part of your gallery wall, etc!

Didn't it turn out awesome???!!!

I can't wait to see what you create! See all the Junk Monkey Paint Supplies you can create with here. 

And make sure you are following our Facebook page so you don't miss another awesome DIY project!

Shabby love,

Sonia xo

www.junkmonkeypaint.com

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