I think I may be addicted to making wood decor signs 😉 They’re so fun and easy and there are just So. Many. Options!! Today I’m going to show you how to make a Heart Love Wood Sign, but you could make it a quote or any sort of decal – sky’s the limit! When I was asked to do a craft at our local PTO meeting, this was what I went it – it’s perfect for group crafting and my Craft Club is actually doing it as this week’s project. I just love how it came out!
And I’ve got some tips for you along the way – including secrets to using a stencil AND the FREE cut file, wahoo!!
I love this design – I had it in my mind, and couldn’t find what I had pictured, so I just broke down and designed what I had envisioned. I like how it can be for Valentine’s, but it’s not overtly so and could actually stay up all year round. Especially if you go with the less colorful version 😉
Heart Love Wood Sign
you’ll need:
–Stencil (FREE cut file can be found HERE), transfer tape
–board cut to desired size and prepainted white
–1×2 trim boards cut to desired size (more info on mine below)
–paint
–sandpaper, nails/nail guy (optional), etc
Video Tutorial!! (and there’s a written break-down tutorial on down, if you prefer that…)
The Boards
I use cheap-o pine boards for my craft projects – they’re called “common board” and come in 6 or 8ft lengths. You can even ask them to cut them when you’re in the store! For the trim, I used Pine Select 1x2s. For this project, the main board is the size of 8ft wide. That’s what it says when you buy it, but it’s actually 7.25 inches wide. I cut it square, so it’s 7.25 by 7.25 inches. The trim pieces are cut into 4 lengths, 2 at 7.25 long and 2 at 8.75 long. But you can make yours whatever size you want!
The Stencil
I cut mine with my Silhouette. I’m kind of thrifty, so when I’m cutting stencils, instead of using vinyl, I use contact paper – like what you would line your shelves with.
Once you cut your stencil, you’ll need to decide how you would like to make your project – look close at the samples I made, do you see the difference? All of them started with a white board, but some have the background painted, leaving the heart white, and some have the heart painting with a white background. The same stencil will work no matter which version you choose! Here you can note the difference between the pink project and the turqouise project:
So decide which version you’d like to make. Then peel/weed out what you want painted. In the example above, for the pink one I peeled out the background and for the turquoise one I peeled out the heart. See the prepped stencils below? The one on the left with the heart peeled out will give you results like the black or turquoise example. The one on the right will give you results like the pink example.
Once you have your stencil weeded out, then you’ll use transfer tape to move it over onto the prepainted piece of wood. (If you’ve never used vinyl or transfer tape before, check out this post: How to use Adhesive Vinyl)
Painting (and the SECRET to no bleeding!)
Ok, now you’re ready to paint! The trouble with a stencil is that sometimes the paint likes to seep under, which is a bummer. The secret to solving that problem is actually to let it happen 😉 Hear me out – – so before you paint the color, you’ll want to paint on a light coat of the underneath color, in this case the white. The idea is that the white will seep under, but it’s okay because it’s the same exact color. Then where it seeped it will seal the gap between the board and the stencil. Make sense? While the white is drying, paint the pieces of your trim.
So after the white dries, you’ll paint the color right over it:
Assembly
Now you just need to nail it all together. I use a nail gun, but you could also do it by hand. Nail the two short trim boards to the sides and then nail the long boards on the top and bottom. Once the trim boards are on, you can sand the edges to give them a distressed look:
I love how they’re the same project, but you can have so many versions!
Enjoy making yours!!
Renee says
Love these, thanks for the tutorial