The Smooch Sign

(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

Some Christmas Crafting!

(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

Sock it to me

Have you ever decorated your laundry room?

The most I’ve ever done in a laundry room is to apply some cute old-fashioned laundry decals I found at the craft store. Really easy to do, and adds a homey touch to the room I spend way too much time in. But this was at my last house. I’ve lived in this current house for going on eight years, and I’ve just painted it for the first time. And it’s not very exciting as far as paint colors go, because we are moving in a year, and I need to keep things neutral (a.k.a. boring).

My current laundry room is on the second floor of my house, and out of the four houses I’ve lived in, only one had its laundry room on the main floor. It’s convenient to have it on the floor where most of the dirty clothes live.

Anyhow, today’s post is about a little sign I made for my laundry room that serves two purposes. First, it’s a little decor in an otherwise boring room. Second, my youngest son is the master of losing socks (somewhere in our house) and I constantly have a pile of single socks, and my ranting about this constant stream of single socks does nothing to change the situation. He is twelve years old, and he cannot wait to remove his socks once he removes his shoes. So I’m either ranting about the dirty socks left where ever he drops them, or ranting about the fact that somehow, only half the pair ends up in a laundry basket. Life’s deep mysteries, I tell you.

I purchased this basic wood and rope sign at my local Walmart, and I’m sorry I don’t remember what I paid for it, but I bet it was under $15 for sure. It was meant to hold photographs in the little clothespins. The wood was already distressed so that saved me a step. I had seen this saying “Clean, single and looking for a mate” on a sign that is meant to hold unpaired socks and like I always do, I said, “I can make that!”

I had also purchased the wood letters because I knew the only ones I had at home were “collegiate” style, and that wasn’t the look I was going for. In the photo, you can see where I already sketched out in pencil the lettering that I would paint by hand. If this is a scary idea to you, don’t worry: you can use more wood letters, or use rub-on letters from the scrapbooking department. If you use wood letters, you should find smaller ones than the ones you use to make CLEAN, SINGLE AND MATE.

Next, I decided on what colors to use for the sign. Since my laundry room is so plain Jane, I decided to use some colors that I saw on a paint store flyer. My colors are not exact matches, of course, but they were a good starting point.

I added white to my palette (former frozen food dish) just in case I need to adjust some colors. And as it turned out, the lime green color was way too bold and needed to be muted with the white. I know me, and it wasn’t in my best interest to match the colors I had found on the flier, but rather get close because while I liked those colors together, I knew I would like a near representation of them, too. Not everyone is adventurous enough to start mixing colors up, but the good news about a project like this is, you do not need a lot of paint. In fact, look at the palette pic above: that’s too much color for a few 1″ high wood letters.

Another quick note about these particular letters: they have what appears to be a light wood stain on the edges of the letters, leaving the fronts and backs unfinished and ready to accept whatever paint or stain you want to put on them. I used a basic small flat paint brush to paint my letters, and as seen in the above photo, I simply used a straight pin to hold the letter while I painted it. I am too impatient to paint half the letter, let it dry, then paint the other half. I don’t have all day! Also, I only painted the fronts. I did not touch the sides. It will never be seen or looked at that closely.

As for what letters should be painted what color, I didn’t think too hard about this. I just painted a few one color, painted a few another color…Just don’t paint the same color next to itself.

Laying the letters out in their proper order really helps you to determine what colors you want to paint what. Plus, you can always paint over a color with a different color once it dries. This is a very forgiving medium.

And here I am muting the electric lime green color with some white. The pale mossy green at the bottom center of the photo is right out of the bottle, and I wasn’t sure about it at this point. Just ignore that for now.

Now I have painted with the purple, the light blue, and the muted lime green.

Now, this paint color flier had this lovely peachy tone and I tried to make it by mixing some pink with muted lime green, and I got close, but not where I wanted it to be. So I took my bottle of horrendous Halloween orange and added a dab to the palette so I could add just a little to get the peachy tone I was looking for.

Your letters should dry fairly quickly, so long as you’re using acrylic craft paints, and thin coats of it, and it’s not too terribly humid where you are. When the letters are dry, it’s time to arrange them the way you want them on the board and decide if the way you plan on doing other lettering still works.

**A note about letter arrangement: When I first opened the letters from their packing, I realized I didn’t have enough room on the wood plank to spell out all the words with wood letters. I am totally unafraid to hand letter things, so it wasn’t a big deal for me. If you are thinking of doing a project like this, try to figure out in the store, before you buy, whether or not what you want on your wood plank will fit. If not, consider doing some words in the wood letters, and consider an alternative like a paint marker, or rub-on scrapbooking letters.**

Like I mentioned before, I decided right away to hand letter the rest of my words, and I had used a pencil to sketch them out. I just needed a smaller paint brush, and I decided to use black paint muted to a charcoal with a little bit of a light color already in my palette.

To the left is the small brush I used to do my lettering.

I painted on a very non-committal comma first.

And here is the rest. It’s not perfect, but I am happy with it. Now is the time to glue the painted letters on.

This is the glue I used to attach the wood letters to the plank. It only takes a little glue. You probably don’t want it squishing out from behind the letters and creating a glue blob here and there.

This is the method I used to glue the letters on. I arranged all the letters on the plank. Then I picked up any letter that wasn’t the first letter. In this case, “L.” I put glue on it, then replaced it on the plank. I then was able to glue the other letters in the word “CLEAN” without worrying about having the spacing right. The good news is, with glue like this, it doesn’t dry immediately where you can’t slightly slide the letter around a bit to get it exactly where you want it. Hot glue would make this more difficult.

At some point, I decided to try the mossy green color on a few letters, and I was really pleased with that result. I also muted the lime green even more. I was glad I did. So here is the finished piece. I’m really happy with it, and I’m also happy the small clothespins hold the socks! I was thinking I may have to swap them out with full size clothespins, but nope–they do the job. And I fully expect my son to end up with more than four orphaned socks at once. Because I know this kid, I may have to add some clothespins, and then some more rope….

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you have a wonderful day!