Tag Archives: simple

Quick and Easy Bar Sign Ideas – Made for around $8!

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Hello there! Little man P and I have just returned home from a nice long visit to family back home on the east coast. While I’m hesitant to call my trip a “vacation” because of all the running around we did pretty much the entire time, it was definitely a ton of fun and super productive – especially when it came to DIY-ing!

Since my Mom aka Nanny (Nanny is what P calls my Mom but for the purpose of this post it might as well be used in the vocational sense as well, haha) was more than willing to help out with my stinky frog I had a lot of time to devote to working on several projects, all of which I’m excited to share with you! I’ll start off by sharing these adorable bar signs that I whipped up using an $8.00 piece of wood. I actually ended up deviating from my original plan which was to attempt to create a DIY marquee bar sign but once I completed the painting part of the sign I chickened out on drilling the holes and inserting the lights because I thought it was super cute just the way it was (hopefully I can attempt the marquee sign soon though!) 🙂

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As far as a tutorial goes I’ll share the fonts (usually I find fun fonts via dafont.com but these particular fonts are all available in current versions of Microsoft Word!) that I used for the signs but for an actual how-to hop over to my DIY Hand-Painted Sign post for a step-by-step tutorial on how to create a hand painted sign without a Silhouette or Cricut. These signs will also be available as a set in my Etsy shop if you’re looking to purchase something to spice up the look of your bar area or are in the market for a similar custom product (here is the link for this specific listing) 🙂

The original piece of wood (1’X4′)
completed “BAR” sign
My view while working on the second sign 🙂

 

PRODUCTS/FONTS USED:

wood – 1 4’X1′ piece cut in half // paint – “Ultra White” and “Front Door Red” by Valspar // stain – “Jacobean” by Minwax // font for “bar” sign – “Bernard MT Condensed” // font for “eat, drink & be merry” sign – “Bernard MT Condensed”, “Script MT Bold”, “Algerian”

 

 

 

Skinny Berry Sangria

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This is a GREAT drink! So good in fact, that I had to wait for the after effects (and the memory of the after effects, lol) to wear off enough for me to stomach writing up the recipe for you guys, haha. The good news is as long as you don’t let these go down like water (as we did on our girl’s night) they shouldn’t give you any trouble but I will warn you it’s difficult because MAN are they delicious! This drink was my effort to create a fruity and fun “girl’s night” cocktail while keeping the calories at bay (the sugar content is still a factor but at least it’s from fruit and fruit juice, we do what we can right? haha). I love getting together with my girls for drinks but especially during the winter those extra calories hiding in your cocktails can definitely do some damage to the waistline. While it’s no secret that the best way to keep healthy and fit is to eliminate alcohol altogether, you’ll feel a little bit better about your decision to have a drink or two knowing that you were able to lighten them up even just a little bit! This is a great big-batch drink to make for a crowd and would be super fun for a bridal shower or summer event. That being said, cheers to warmer weather hopefully being on the horizon for us NOVA folks (but if not I can always warm up with this cocktail).

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Like my champagne glasses? They’re available here on Amazon in sets of four (“toast”, “sparkle”, “cheers” and “celebrate”) – so cute!

INGREDIENTS

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  • 1 bottle Sparkling Brut Rose (if you prefer a sweeter drink try a sparkling moscato or regular sparkling rose but I felt plenty of sweetness came from the fruit and cranberry juice)
  • 1/2-1 cup Berry Vodka (depending on how strong you want your sangria)
  • 1 cup berry or raspberry seltzer
  • 2 cups light or diet cran-raspberry juice
  • 1/2 cup each strawberries (sliced), raspberries and blueberries
  • frozen mixed berries for serving (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Combine the fresh berries, vodka and cran-raspberry juice in a pitcher and allow to refrigerate for at least an hour.
  2. When ready to serve pour in seltzer and brut rose and stir. I served mine in champagne glasses with frozen mixed berries in lieu of ice cubes!

Two-tone Side Table Re-do: Blizzard Project #1

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Personally being stuck in the house drives me crazy. Whether it’s running errands or just being outside with friends, little P and I are gone most of the day and I love it that way! Needless to say as winter storm Jonas approached and everyone began clearing out their local grocery stores and waiting on ridiculously long gas lines, I was headed to Lowes to pick up some DIY essentials (with only hours to spare, haha!) to ensure my sanity for the duration of our snow-bound adventure. Now rewind about a week – I’m always keeping my eye on local online yard sale sites on the lookout for fixer-upper treasures and hit the jackpot the last few weeks! For under $100 I was able to score FIVE amazing new pieces of furniture to re-do (and unbeknownst to me at the time, this storm was about to give me a great opportunity to get to work, haha). Hopefully even after the snow melts I can keep crankin’ out the rest of these pieces at my current pace but we’ll see ;-).

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Our last minute trip to Lowes. P was in all his crazy-haired, pajama-clad glory!

For now I’d like to share my first blizzard project – my two-tone side table. This piece was amazing and I couldn’t believe that the owner wanted to part with it (and for SO cheap), especially because it was so solid, it must weigh forty pounds if not more! Since I don’t have room for all of my creations I know that have to start selling things off here and there but I knew immediately that this is one that I would need to keep for myself. I loved the wood grain, which is why I chose to leave the drawers as is and loved the fact that the sides of the table actually had some noticeable splits in the wood which add to its character and vintage feel. I didn’t do anything special aside from try out a new wax which I plan to review in a separate post. I used my homemade chalk paint (see this post for the recipe and more information on mixing your own), distressed it a bit and then finished it using Dover’s Chalk Paint Wax – a new natural furniture wax I’m trying out in an attempt to get away from harsh chemical and VOC products like Minwax (although they have served me well to this point!). If you’re as in love with the color I used as I am, it’s “London Coach” by Valspar – doesn’t it just sound wintery and amazing!? I hope this project inspires a little snow day DIY on your end! xoxo

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Finished product!

 

 

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A little snippet of the fun that was had in all the snow!

 

 

 

Pottery Barn Hack – DIY Jumbo Advent Calendar

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I don’t know about you but I’m currently in the final phases of what I like to call the holiday season “hangover” or the period immediately following the holidays when BAM – regular routine resumes. While you’re expected to just jump back into the swing of things it’s a little hard when you’re inevitably left with a house full of decorations in need of taking down (which you feel like you just put up), tons of cleaning that you’ve been putting off, a to-do list longer than Santa’s naughty list and if you’re anything like me, lets face it, probably an actual hangover haha. Needless to say the holidays are one heck of  a whirlwind but after a weekend of cleaning and de-Christmas-ing my home I can finally say that the Schulze household is almost back to normal.

As I was sadly packing up the last of my holiday decor I realized that I was yet to share one of my favorite DIY holiday projects with you – my DIY advent calendar! I don’t know about you but my favorite projects tend to be the ones that save me the most coin, I mean we all love saving money but to me saving money and creating something great is the ultimate win-win. That is how I feel about this advent calendar, mostly because when that holiday edition of the PB catalogue comes to my door and I already know before opening it that I can’t justify buying a single thing in it, it is SO nice to once in a while use their over priced items as inspiration for something I can create for a fraction of the cost! The original cost of this advent calendar was $149.00 plus shipping – INSANE. That is almost two weeks worth of groceries for us lol. After all was said and done my total cost came in at around $25.00 and about an hour and a half of my time! Now bear in mind that your version need not be this big, I know it’s hard to find a place for a five foot seasonal wall hanging (haha) but I hope this project can inspire a little DIY advent calendar project of your own and get you looking forward to next holiday season as I always am! xoxo

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My inspiration for this project!

 

DIY Jumbo Advent Calendar

SUPPLIES

*Note: these are the supplies that I used to create this particular project, you can adapt your version as you see fit (smaller board, different font, colors, clothespin size etc.).

  • 1 large wooden board – Mine measured 5′ X 10″ (I think the total length was 6′ at time of purchase but I had it cut down). I used a pine board because I wanted it to be a little more durable and less likely to warp should I ever have to store it in the garage or in a basement depending on where we live at the time. It was a little more expensive (only by a few dollars, but still). If I wanted to save some extra coin I would have used the same wood that I chose for my Jumbo Outdoor Holiday Signs, which runs about $8-ish for a 4 foot piece.
  • 25 standard wooden clothespins – available pretty much anywhere, I believe even Dollar Tree carries them!
  • 25 small canvas bags – here is the link to where I purchased them via Amazon.
  • small letter/number stencils – available at any craft store but here is a link to a similar product on Amazon.
  • painters tape
  • x-acto knife
  • measuring tape
  • 2 large D-rings
  • industrial strength wood glue or multi-purpose glue – I use E-6000 for most of my projects that require a heavy duty adhesive and it always works well for me.
  • paint brushes
  • latex paint – I used black, red and white
  • red acrylic paint – for the canvas bags
  • red spray paint – for the clothespins

INSTRUCTIONS

I began by sanding down my wooden board just to smooth it out a bid and then painting it with one coat of white latex paint. I wanted some of he wood grain to show through since I was going for the “rustic” look of my PB inspirational piece.

While the board was drying I spray painted my clothespins on all sides and left them  to dry. I also used my stencils and red acrylic paint to paint the numbers 1-25 on each of my small canvas baggies.

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finished product!

 

Once my large board had dried I distressed it a little using my electric sander (a hand sander would work also) then used my painters tape and x-acto knife method to paint “The Schulzes” and the numbers 1-25 onto the board. You can find a quick tutorial for this method here! Before painting the letters on I placed the clothespins on the board (without gluing them) just to get an idea of how I wanted everything spaced out. If you like the fonts I used for this project the script is “Austie Bost – rest of our lives” (available for free download via dafont.com) and I believe the standard font is just a variation of Times New Roman.

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Gotta have SVU on while crafting! I wonder what episode it was! lol

 

After your paint has dried take a moment to screw the d-rings into the back of the board (this is easier to do prior to attaching the clothespins so that the board can still lay flat).

Finally, use the E-6000 glue to attach the clothespins below each of the numbers on the board. The glue dries clear and pretty fast so you should be ready to attach your little baggies in no time!

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There you have it! One of my favorite holiday projects to date. I especially love that the bags are large enough to hold small toys and even little wooden trains so that we could fill them with surprises other than candy 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

DIY Skeleton Wreath

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When it’s 90 degrees and humid as heck outside it’s hard to believe that fall is right around the corner, but as the stores are already reminding us (most have had Halloween stuff out since July – whaaaaat?!), fall is right around the corner! With that being said I want to get a jump start on sharing some of my fun DIY Halloween décor that I didn’t get around to sharing last year. Since I’m a little wreath obsessed, I want to begin by sharing this super simple but a bit unconventional Halloween skeleton wreath with you. It’s a little something I came up with when I was pressed for time (and cash!) last Halloween but still wanted to get a fun wreath up on the door. I hope this jumpstarts your Halloween creativity and inspires you to think outside the box when it comes to your front door décor!

SUPPLIES

  • 1 plastic skeleton – I purchased mine at Micheals in September and believe it or not it was already 60% off not even close to Halloween! It was originally about $11.99 but I was able to snag it for under $5. I don’t have the exact product escription or dimensions but something like this would work just fine and I’d imagine you could find the same one in Michaels or your other local craft store this year.

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  • Twine or fishing line – I thought that twine looked a little more spooky and haunted-house/pirate-like and I already had it on hand so that was my string of choice but in a pinch any weather-resistant string will do!

INSTRUCTIONS

Step 1: Begin by separating your skeleton into pieces. Doing so at the joints will work best because you can just pop them out where they are attached. As you can see, I left the torso in tact and removed the head, legs, arms, feet and hands but the way you decide to break up ‘ol lazy bones is totally up to you!

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Step 2: Form a rough circle using your torso, arms and legs, then tie them together using the twine (or string of choice). It may take a little manipulation and re-tying but eventually the skeleton will resemble somewhat of a circle.

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Step 3: Lastly, tie your skull, hands and feet to the “wreath” wherever you see fit. You can also go a step further and add cobwebs, spiders or even splatter red paint to look like blood (eek!).

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That’s it! Sometimes the clearance rack is a real gold mine when it comes to last-minute décor and in my case it got me to think outside the box when it came to an October wreath 🙂

DIY Scrap Fabric Wreath – St. Patty’s Day

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After creating my very first DIY wreath last April (hey, I’ll have to pay it a special tribute this year for prompting twelve months worth of creative wreath making! lol), I was determined to try out a different style of wreath each month. Since I gear each wreath toward either the season or whatever holiday happens to fall within that month, I wanted this wreath to be St. Patrick’s Day themed. While browsing Pinterest for style inspiration I came across this adorable St. Patty’s Day Rag Wreath (pictured below) via The Magic of Ordinary Things blog. I immediately knew that this had to be my next wreath since scrap fabric banners are basically my favorite go-to party décor item of all time (check out my tutorial here). Additionally, I already had a ton of left over green fabric from the various DIY décor projects I had created for Baby P’s “Wild One” party so I was happy to put that to use and the rest of the fabric I found at my local fabric store on the sale rack and in the remnants bin. This wreath is now in my top three favorites (I’ll have to do a “wreath year in review” come April and rank them all, lol), mostly because it resembles my beloved scrap fabric banners but also because it is SUPER cost effective, coming in at just under $7.00!!! If you’re ready for a little more variety among your conventional DIY wreaths, this is super fun and different and can be customized to fit any holiday or color scheme, so dig into your scraps and give this one a try!

my inspiration via "the magic of ordinary things" blog

my inspiration via “the magic of ordinary things” blog

SUPPLIES

  • wire – since lovely home *eye roll* is the only one in the neighborhood without a storm door my wreaths need a fighting chance of standing up to the elements so I used about 3 feet of thick plastic covered wire that I found at Lowes (near the rope) this way the wire couldn’t rust and turn the color of the fabric, it cost about $0.30/ft. (so less than $1 to create a makeshift 12″ wreath frame). If you have a storm door or sheltered front door you can do what was done in the previously mentioned tutorial above and form a wire hanger into a circle.
  • fabric – the amount you need is entirely up to you and depends on how full you want your wreath to be and how many colors you would like to use. I used well over 100 strips, measuring about 1X6″ (as per the first tutorial).
  • duct tape

INSTRUCTIONS

  • Begin by forming your wire into a circle and securing it with duct tape (shipping or packing tape will also do). Mine was about 12″ in diameter.
  • Next, tie your fabric scraps around the wreath until it is completely covered and none of the wire is showing. You don’t even need to knot it, just a simple single tie will do! At this point you can embellish the wreath in any additional manner that you please. I added a mini St. Patrick’s Day sign that I found at Hobby Lobby for 50% off.
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Finished product!

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Click on this photo to check out my post on how I created my giant reversible “lucky” sign!

Giant Reversible Holiday Sign – St. Patty’s Day Edition

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Eek! Time keeps on slippin’ and another month has came and went! I have been keeping busy with my not-so-tiny frogman (and of course a few projects in between!) and in some other exciting news we have been busy preparing for our next move which will be taking us to VA! We love the DC area and NOVA so we are super excited to see what this new assignment has in store for us.

Although most of my time recently has been spent trying to purge our useless items rather than take on new projects I did take a quick minute to spruce up our stoop for St. Patrick’s Day. Even though between my husband and myself there is zero Irish heritage that doesn’t mean we don’t love this fun holiday all the same, after all who doesn’t appreciate a little Irish cheer [insert infinite beer emojiis]? 😉 Additionally I appreciate any holiday that gives me the excuse to craft and ever since I created our giant “NOEL” porch sign for our outdoor Christmas display I’ve kind of done the idea to death in my head thinking of ways that I can transition the same idea into other holidays, first in the form of my “XOXO” board for Valentine’s Day and now a “LUCKY” one for St. Patty’s Day! I had mentioned in my Valentine’s Day board post that I had experienced a minor lapse in brain function when I didn’t simply paint the “XOXO” art onto the back of my “NOEL” board so that my holiday porch décor could double as Valentine’s décor by flipping it over once February arrived. With that being said I’m happy to report that I did remember to do that this month which is what makes this holiday sign “reversible” – my “LUCKY” board is actually the back of my Valentine’s Day board which makes this month’s porch sign FREE! I hope this inspires a little outdoor design creativity in you, with a little luck you might wind up with the most fun porch in the neighborhood! 😉

Our St. Patty's Day sign as it is displayed on our porch, with a little leprechaun photo-bombing of course <3

Our St. Patty’s Day sign as it is displayed on our porch, with a little leprechaun photo-bombing of course ❤

For a full length supply list and tutorial for this project check out my “XOXO” Valentine’s Day Sign, but if you would like to duplicate my “LUCKY” board exactly here are the details

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Side #1 – Valentine’s Day

Side #2 - St. Patty's Day

Side #2 – St. Patty’s Day

FONT: “Christmas on Crack” available for free download via dafont.com. I used font size 970 just be sure to adjust your page margins so that it will fit.

COLOR: “Four Leaf Clover” by Valspar – funny thing, I didn’t actually pick this because of the name I just randomly grabbed a green color chip and that was the name, how fitting right!? lol I purchased a sample sized paint in this color for $2.98 – to learn more about my obsession with sample sized paints for projects check out this post.

CLIPART: For my four leaf clover silhouette I just copied a google-image four leave clover to a word document and enlarged it to my desired size before printing it out. Here is the link to the exact one that I used.

Flashback to St. Patty's Day last year - click on this picture to check out an adorable post about my little DIY St. Patty's Day photo with my little lucky charm <3

Flashback to St. Patty’s Day last year – click on this picture to check out an adorable post about my little DIY St. Patty’s Day photo with my little lucky charm ❤

“Where the Wild Things Are” Birthday Party Invitation

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So this post is going to be a little redundant if you’ve already checked out my DIY Invites & Greeting Cards without Photoshop post, but since Baby P’s invite was so stinkin’ cute and so special to me, I think it deserves it’s own post :). Additionally, this tutorial will highlight inserting a picture into your invite whereas my last post was text only. Perhaps most importantly (second only to Baby P’s cuteness, of course lol) is that these invitations cost about $8.00 for thirty (depending on where you choose to have them printed)! Talk about a steal, you can’t even get lame, fill-’em-in-yourself Target brand invites for $8.00 let alone an adorable, custom picture invitation. Please keep in mind, if you are interested in having a WTWTA themed birthday party and love this invitation design please contact me and I will sub in your child’s picture and send you the PDF for free 🙂

NOTE: I will reiterate what I said in my other DIY invitation post. It is legal for you to use copywrited images and characters for your own personal use as long as you are not profiting from that use, however, big corporate print stores like Staples and Office Max are weird about printing things with these types of images (like the WTWTA characters on my invite) and will not do it because technically it is trademark infringement on their part as they profit from your payment to them for printing. Some print stores, like my local Postal Anex are a lot more lax about this kind of thing so bear in mind that you will need to seek out one of these smaller establishments or print them yourself at home or at the library.

As mentioned above, the only difference between this invitation and the example in my DIY Invitations and Greeting Cards post is that this one contains a photograph (which is super easy to ad). For creating the text portion of the invite and adding the characters (which I found by doing a Google search for “Where the Wild Things Are characters”) I will refer you to the previously mentioned post. As for adding a picture simply select: INSERT>PICTURE and retrieve the picture from wherever you have it saved on your computer. Once you have added the photograph you may adjust the size and then select: FORMAT>PICTURE>OUTLINE if you wish to change the color or weight of the outline around the picture (I used a thick yellow outline to match the font). Like the font I used? It’s “Hello, Goodbye” available here via dafont.com, the same one I used when creating my DIY Hand-Painted Where the Wild Things Are Sign. Do you absolutely love my photo of Baby P in his wolf suit? Check out the my DIY Wolf Suit Costume tutorial!

 

DIY Baby Costume – “Where the Wild Things Are” Wolf Suit

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I know what you’re thinking “enough already with this WTWTA birthday party, I’m so sick of hearing about it I’m about to go burn the book!” lol, almost done, I promise! When I was drafting a post about Baby P’s adorable birthday invite I realized that I just had to share the pictures from my little backyard photo shoot when taking a picture to use for the invite. I was inspired when I found an invitation on Pinterest of a little boy dressed up as the character of “Max” in the most adorable wolf suit and just knew that I had to recreate it for P! The first step was to create a wolf suit. I knew that these were available for purchase but with my already meager party budget I had no business even entertaining the idea of buying a costume, especially to use for only one picture and especially because Pottery Barn Kids was selling them to the tune of $70.00 – say whaaaaat??!!! Anyhow, I figured that since it was just for the invitation it only had to look convincing enough for the recipients to get it when read along with the text so I knew that creating my own wouldn’t pose too much of a challenge, all I needed was a white sweatshirt, pants and a tail of some sort. Surprisingly these items were easy to come by and I say surprisingly because who on Earth would sell a white sweatshirt and pants for tiny humans that are always dirty? Maybe they’re meant to be worn ironically or something, haha anyway, I digress, back to creating the wolf suit. I found the sweatshirt and sweatpants on Amazon because I didn’t have time to run to every second hand store searching for these particular items in his size but if you do by all means find them at a thrift store or ask to borrow them from friends as you wont be altering them in any way. Please read on to see where I found the rest of my embellishments for the costume and of course to see the finished product – the picture of my squishy Baby P wearing it!

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I chose this particular photo to use for the invitation, if you’re interested in seeing how I made it myself check out this post and to find out how you can easily make other greeting cards and invitations without Photoshop, check out this post!

WOLF SUIT

1 pair of white sweatpants

  • 1 white hooded sweatshirt
  • 3 cardboard circles (to make the buttons)
  • 3 medium sized safety pins and 1 large safety pin
  • 1 small piece of faux fur fabric (less than 1/8 of a yard is fine)
  • 1 crown (I fashioned mine out of a left over box and yellow felt fabric but a gold plastic crown would be easy to come by, even a Burger King crown would work! haha)

To assemble the costume all I did was draw a black “X” on each one of the cardboard circles then used the three smaller safety pins to secure them to front of the sweatshirt right beside the zipper. I also cut a small tail out of the faux fur fabric and used the large safety pin to secure it to the inner back of the pants. That’s it! Clearly this is nothing fancy but the outcome was absolutely adorable and it served the purpose I needed. If you are planning to use this as a Halloween costume or want it to be worn for party you can jazz it up a little more with real buttons and by attaching some brown felt or fur feet to the top of their shoes.

Here are just a few of the pictures of P in his wolf suit!

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DIY Oversized Valentine’s Day Sign – A $9 Project!

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After posting about my DIY Valentine’s Day Wreath I felt super proud to have gotten a post up that actually preceded the holiday for which I created it, haha. So in keeping with that rhythm I’d like to share one more Valentine’s Day DIY project that I had made mention of in my wreath post – my DIY oversized Valentine’s Day “XOXO” sign, perfect to lean on your front porch and cause your neighbors to do a double take when driving by :). This project was actually inspired by DIY Oversized Holiday Sign that I displayed throughout the holidays (I will do a separate post about that soon along with the rest of my DIY Christmas décor). As I was reluctantly stripping my stoop of all of it’s holiday awesomeness I realized that since my “NOEL” sign was so easy to create (less than $9!) I could just create a similar one for Valentine’s Day! Before I get to the tutorial I am going to admit a serious “mom-brain” moment and let you know that you can actually make two of these signs for the price of one by simply making your sign reversible, something I myself didn’t realize until my friend commented on my picture and said “I would love to have one of those with something for Christmas on one side and Valentine’s Day on the other” – DUH, Natasha! So had my brain actually been functioning on the day I created this I would have simply turned my “NOEL” sign over and painted the “XOXO” on the back. However, no harm done as I can just do my St. Patty’s day sign on the back of my Valentine’s Day one, that’s right, I love this project so much that I’m pretty sure I’ll be making one for each and every holiday! Hope this inspires you to create a simple project that makes a BIG statement :).

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For my throwback-Thursday I’ll share this adorable Valentine’s Day picture of my little Baby P, at the time just four months old, my how time flies! Click on this picture for the link to my post about all of my little DIY Holiday Photos, if you love squishy babies you’re in for a treat! 🙂

 

SUPPLIES

  • 1 4ft X 1 ft board – the cheap “white board” stuff is fine, that’s how I got away with this being a $9 project, since these boards already come in this size there is no need to have it cut (although if you’d like it smaller go ahead and have them cut it down to size for you right there in the store). I purchased my board at Lowes for $8.97 less my military discount. Try to pick a piece that doesn’t have any large cracks as some of them do.
  • latex paint – any color you wish! For the background of my board I used “March Breeze” (aka white lol) and for the letters I used “Front Door Red” and “Dusty Garnet” all by Valspar. These colors I already had on hand since I tend to collect those little sample sized paints available at Lowes, please check out this post to read more about those.
  • black foam brushes
  • electric sander or sanding blocks – for distressing, if you do not plan to distress and your board is in pretty good shape you could probably do without these.
  • painter’s tape (preferably wide)
  • x-acto knife
  • printer
  • Minwax Finishing Paste – any topcoat will do, I used this paste wax because I already had it on hand and it doesn’t require extensive dry time. I used “special dark” to give the sign a more vintage/rustic look.

INSTRUCTIONS

Step 1: Begin by sanding down your board lightly just to soften up any rough or little jagged areas. Next paint your board whatever background color you have chosen. Since I was going for a distressed/white-washed look I only did one thin coat but you can do as many as you want. NOTE: Since my sign wasn’t reversible this time I did not bother to paint the back if you are planning to do a second holiday or saying on the back you can save time by painting the back now, once your front has dried.

Step 2: Next I distressed my board on the edges and a little along the front using my electric sander. This could also be done by hand using sanding blocks or regular sand paper.

Step 3: Using whatever word processor you have at your disposal, create your words. Sometimes I find it is easiest to get the biggest letters by Googling, for example, “letter X” and then copying and pasting the stock image onto your blank document, this way you can maximize your margins and adjust the picture of the letter to be as big as possible, whereas when simply typing the letter x you may not get it to be as big. Make sense? The hearts I just created using the “insert shape” function on your word toolbar, and inserting them right into the middle of the O. Once you are happy with the size of your letters just print out your document. NOTE: this probably goes without saying but if you’re anything like me your brain is occasionally scooped out and the obvious may be temporarily lost on you, but since “XOXO” contains two of each character you need only create one X and one O document and print each twice. This is great because you can be sure that they’re even!

Since I didn't take step-by-step photos of the "XOXO" board here is one from this step when creating my "NOEL" board at Christmas time.

Since I didn’t take step-by-step photos of the “XOXO” board here is one from this step when creating my “NOEL” board at Christmas time.

Step 4: Now cover your board with painter’s tape (this is where it helps to have the wide painter’s tape). Next, arrange your letters on your board, if you’re super OCD you can use a measuring tape or ruler (even a level if you’re super nutty) or you can just wing it and place the letters so that they look even to you and use a bit of tape to hold them in place. Then using your x-acto knife carefully (no craft-induced ER trips please lol) cut around your letters and hearts pressing firmly enough to cut through both the paper and tape, once you have finished (or as you go along, whatever works for you) peel off the letters and you will be left with a stencil of your letters and hearts (Os should be filled in with the exception of the heart portion). *For more on this method check out my post on my first DIY Hand-Painted Sign.

Step 5: Once your little makeshift stencil  is ready to go you can now paint! Using your foam brush apply an even coat of paint to each letter in the colors of your choosing. Allow about half an hour in between coats, juts enough for any wet areas to dry. Since your background is white you should not need more than 2-3 coats. NOTE: If you’re painting a light color over a dark background I would suggest hitting your letters with a coat of cover stain/bonding primer in either brush or spray form (see this link for a product recommendation) then applying your color on top, I will touch more on this when I post about my DIY Oversized Holiday Sign).

Step 6: Allow your piece to dry about 8 hours or overnight. Once it is dry peel off the rest of your painters tape to reveal your beautiful hand-painted letters! At this point you may want to give the letter a very light sanding just to remove any thick areas where the paint may have built up between the tape and the edge of the letters but if you’re happy with how it looks you can just move onto the final step – waxing your piece.

just before the waxing step!

just before the waxing step!

Step 7: Using a lint free cloth or rag apply a thin layer of your paste wax and allow to sit for the recommended amount of time (15 mins I think?) then return with a clean rag and buff your piece. If you are using a liquid or spray topcoat just follow the directions on the package and wait the appropriate amount of times between coats and be sure to allow enough dry-time before displaying your piece out doors. Personally I am partial to the wax (a) because I already had it on hand and (b) once you buff it, it is ready for display, no dry time!

Squishy baby photo-bombing my Valentine's Day stoop photo :)

Squishy baby photo-bombing my Valentine’s Day stoop photo 🙂

Like my wreath? Check out this post to find out how you can easily make one yourself!