christmas sign – Jenny Made It

(I get no revenue from any products I mention. I simply mention products and stores to let you know where I got something and what it is.)

I love making a sign. And I seem to love making them the old fashioned way–painting them! Last year I painted this Christmas tree farm sign, and I just love it so much! It was a lot of work, but so worth it. The month before that, I did this sign, which goes above the window at my kitchen sink each holiday season. This year, after sighing and drooling all over Pinterest’s selection of yuletide bedroom decor, I decided to paint a sign for my bedroom.

First, I sketched out the word “mistletoe” in a fancy style. I just used pencil and sketchbook paper. I had to tape pieces of paper together to get the length of the lettering I needed for my canvas. I believe my canvas was 12″ by 36″.

Next, I used an Xacto knife to cut out the lettering, being careful not to completely detach the counter forms of letters.

Next, I prepared my blank canvas by mixing up some paint to give me a beautiful red finish. I didn’t purchase any paint for this project, but rather used what I had on hand, which is why I ended up using some fabric paint.

Now I was ready to paint the entire canvas red. After a good coat of paint, I used some white to blend in to give this base a more textured or rendered look.

I had to let the canvas dry overnight before using my paper stencil to paint the “mistletoe” lettering on. This was not as smooth as it could have been because my stencil was just sketchbook paper, not stencil plastic. I did spray a very light coating of adhesive onto the back of my paper stencil, to help keep it in place. Then I used a little sponge pouncer-type applicator to apply the white paint through the stencil. I knew the stenciling wouldn’t be perfect but that was okay because I do like to clean up the lettering with a paintbrush, which is what I definitely had to do until I was satisfied with the look of the sign.

Next up, I needed to get the words “MEET ME UNDER THE” very small at the top of the sign. I could have painted this on, but I realized I had purchased a used Sizzix die cut alphabet from a seller on eBay and I checked right away to see if the letters were the appropriate size, and they were! Woo hoo!

And ta-daah! Here is the finished sign, which I planned on hanging above my bed.

There are four square windows above my bed and I knew the sign would go in the center of this configuration but not cover any windows completely. My plan was to make little mistletoe wreaths (of course I saw some on Pinterest) to go in each of the end windows. I happened to have two small grapevine wreaths on hand, and plenty of kelly green felt. What I didn’t have was a lot of other shades of green and this was vital to give my little wreaths a more natural look. What I ended up doing was using my Sizzix die cutting machine to cut out lemon/lime shapes, which I then painted and trimmed to look like leaves. Sure, this was more labor-intensive than just heading to the store to get other shades of green felt, but I wasn’t sure if I’d even find the shades I needed. So I started mixing up some paint, and fabric paint was a good choice, as it remains flexible once dry. These painted felt shapes needed more dry time than I wanted (I can be impatient at times) but it was vital that I work with dry shapes to avoid getting my scissors and fingers coated in green paint.

To form the leaves, I simply pinched one end of the leaf then used a bit of hot glue to hold that in place. At first, I tried using floral stem wire to attach each leaf to the wreaths but realized it was going to take too much wire and too much time. So I simply attached the leaves onto the grapevine wreaths using more hot glue. I then added little white pom poms I had on hand.

When it came time to put the wreaths in the windows on either side of the mistletoe sign, I realized the scale was off. In other words, the little wreaths were too little. I needed to do something to remedy this and of course, I was unwilling to go buy bigger grapevine wreaths and go through the whole paint felt/dry felt/cut felt process again. So I had a little brainstorming session.

I decided to use more felt, in a flatter fashion to make the wreaths look bigger. It’s not a perfect solution but I think it works for my taste and my windows. I laid out a wreath on a green piece of felt and drew with a pencil some leaf shapes that basically outline the wreath but add a couple inches. I had one piece of a nice green felt that I wanted to use and it was not enough for both wreaths, so I cut it in half, and used half of it along with some kelly green felt for the base piece. Then I used scraps to cut more leaves and then placed them around in a way that I felt looked pleasing. I used my sewing machine and green thread to quickly attach the loose leaves to the leafy base. I then used thread to tack the new base to the grapevine leaves, as well as some hot glue. Here is the result.

I used 3M command hooks to attach the mistletoe sign to the woodwork in the very center of the windows, and used small command hooks to attach the wreaths right to the glass. And here is the finished look!

I am so pleased with how the mistletoe sign and the wreaths turned out! I do spend a lot of time looking at the pins I saved on Pinterest with these totally decked out holiday bedrooms. But I have to keep in mind how staged those rooms are, and I’m asking for trouble if I put an old fashioned sled at the foot of my bed along with steaming mugs of hot chocolate. My husband would break a leg and my white bedding would be destroyed! Instead, I had a little pencil-style Christmas tree near the large window (not shown) with just white lights. The cats would have treated ornaments on this tree as cat toys and I don’t want to get upset with them for being cats. I also put the three cone trees I made on one of my dressers atop a plain red dresser scarf, and a real planted pine tree plant. Oh and the two knit pillows that were super quick to knit up in bulky yarn. It was all just the right amount of Christmas cheer I needed in my room.

For next Christmas, I would like to make a simple quilt in traditional colors for my room. Stay tuned!

Thanks for stopping by to check out my projects! I hope you get some inspiration here!

Jenny

(I get no revenue from any products I mention. I simply mention products and stores to let you know where I got something and what it is.)

Hello again! This might be a record, me writing another post in less than three months from the last time…

So, I had this nice board laying around for literally 4 or 5 years. It was on clearance from some store, likely Joann’s or Michaels. It’s a nice piece of pine, super smooth, three feet by six inches. And for some reason, my younger son used it to write (in black marker) that “Targets were 3 shillings.” Confused yet?

It’s because back in Illinois in middle school, his grade had this Patriot’s Day or something where the kids had jobs back in colonial times, and they had to dress up and stuff. Jack dressed up in this outfit I transformed for him, and we made some fake foam core board rifles that were also for “sale” at his stall. All I remember from this exercise was I did most of the work, the fake rifles were cool as heck, and he came down with the stomach flu the next day. Ah, memories…

But I digress. I kept this board, and just the other day, I saw it in the storage area of my basement and decided it was the perfect size and dimension for some sort of sign for the space above my kitchen windows. I was going to have it say “Many have eaten here, few have died” but that seemed too wordy and a lot of work. See, I don’t have a Cricut machine or some other device to cut vinyl lettering. That would be neat, but I like to do things old school, cuz I’m old-fashioned or something.

So I started by laying on the floor of my craft room and sketching things out in pencil on the board. But then I started thinking about the edge instead and grabbed some supplies I already had to start laying out ideas for a fun border. I’m sure somewhere in the back of my brain I was thinking about what this sign would say. I thought I wanted something for the holidays.

I could picture in my head how cute this would look with lime green beads and the fuzzy pom-poms that have just a bit of sparkle to them. Next, I found an example of lettering that I had in mind and set out to sketch some letters on graph paper. Whenever I had a repeat letter, I used my light table to trace the one I already had for consistency.

Photo of wood with sketched out letters on paper — I really struggled with that “S”

Photo of my marker sketch of how I thought the final project should turn out — This is what I had in mind for the lettering and the edging.

Next, I painted the wood with two or three coats of red craft paint. While that was drying, I had two important jobs to do. One, I had to paint the beads. I had just the right amount of beads, too. I wanted to use things I already had instead of needing to purchase any supplies. The second job was to liberally apply pencil on the backs of each letter for the purpose of transferring the outline of each letter onto the board once the red paint was dry.

Photo collage of the process of painting wooden beads. — As you can see, I changed my mind about the lime green, and made a new green by mixing my lime craft paint with a more standard green.

When the red paint was thoroughly dry and I was happy with the coverage of the “18” that my son had drawn on (the other side says Targets 3 shillings and some scribbles…), it was time to transfer the lettering onto the red painted board, the old school way. I found I needed to press pretty hard to get the pencil markings to transfer onto red paint. It worked great!

Photo of transferring lettering onto red painted board — Old school method! Still works great.

Now it was time to paint the letters white. I used a tube of artists’ acrylic paint to get the maximum coverage. I didn’t have a fresh container of white craft paint and I worried I would run out. The acrylic paint was thick, but I soon got used to it and filled in the letters. The good thing about the lettering style I chose is that I knew a black paint pen was going to be used to outline all the letters, so my painting didn’t have to be spot-on perfect on the very edges of each letter.

Photo of sign with letters painting, showing one coat of paint vs two coats. — The “S” was slightly improved.

It took two coats, even though I could’ve gotten away with one. Next, it was time to use the black paint pen (Sharpie brand) and outline each letter as well as add the drop shadow. This part made me kind of nervous because paint pens generally have oil-based paint in them and I knew a boo-boo could cause a big problem for me.

Photo of me using a black paint pen to outline each painted letter. — Paint pens can sometimes malfunction and release a blob of paint. I was nervous but I just kept at it, and it did not happen…this time….

Starting to look like a Netflix sign, according to my older son! Also, can you see the slight sparkle of the white pom-poms? Fun, aren’t they?

When all my beads were nice and green and had two coats of glossy Mod Podge on them, I knew I could start gluing them and the pom-poms to the edge of the board. I want to note here that I’m totally aware that these beads can easily pop off since hot glue isn’t as strong as maybe an E-6000 or superglue, but since the sign is for my house, and I know I have to carefully store it in the off-season, I was willing to take that risk. However, I laid my beads and pom-poms out a little differently and went too fast, gluing all the pom-poms on, when I realized I was short two beads. And I looked and had no more of that size. That’s when my air-dry clay came to the rescue!

I had most of the sign completed and just needed one night for the clay beads to dry. The next morning, I was able to match the green paint color, paint the beads and give them two coats of Mod Podge. I thought about coating the entire board in the Mod Podge, but decided against it. I like how the red and white is a matte finish, and the beads and black paint pen have a slight sheen.

I think the sign turned out super cute, and I have yet to install it above my kitchen window. I will do that right after Thanksgiving, when I get the rest of my Christmas decor up.

I also finished up a project I started last month, which is this puffy coffee filter wreath!

I found a few different tutorials online and only needed to glance at those to determine how I was going to make this. I purchased a foam wreath form, using a coupon from Joann’s, and I purchased 300 white coffee filters from the grocery store. I have a lot of glue sticks for my gun. I had this about half done last month and got bored (typical me) but today I decided it’s getting done! And it did. And I love it!! The neat thing about this wreath is that it can be used all year round. It’s easy to use a different hanging ribbon. Some people have dyed their coffee filters first, but I was in the mood for a stark wreath.

Well, thanks for hanging in there for my latest crafty adventure. I had a ton of fun doing these projects, and I hope it inspired you to get crafty! Who knows, you might have a blank board laying around and some good ideas rolling around your head!

Jenny

Tag: christmas sign

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