How to Make You're Own Stencils

I have been hand-painting signs and wood. Always by this long method of tracing the letters onto paper, then onto the wood, then carefully painting within those lines. It always comes out well, but sometimes I just dont want to go through all those steps. That's when I got this idea to make my own stencil. Here is what I started with:

Plastic, sturdy enough to hold a shape, but easy enough to cut. I used the plastic holder that a four pack of wrapping paper came in from WalMart.
Exacto knife
Sharpie
Drawn out letters of chosen design
Cutting board

The first step was the choose the design, and have it written out on a piece of paper. I free-hand drew mine out. If I had wanted crisp, precise letters I probably would have traced them, but seeing as I was going for a more rustic and hand written look anyways, it's imperfections worked out well. I would suggest, however, for some styles, such as cursive lettering, to be a bit more careful and precise in your drawing and cutting.

Second, I cut out the letters from the paper with the Exacto knife. Remember to leave centers of letters (those like A, O, D, anything with a big open center) connected to the outside in a small spot. I remembered for the O, but needed to tape in place for the D. Good thing that happened on the paper portion instead of the final stencil!

Then I traced the letters onto the plastic sheet I had using the Sharpie, after cutting the sheet down to size.

Next, cut the letters out again, this time from the plastic. Take you're time, you want nice looking letters you can reuse later. I found that instead of moving the Exacto knife frequently for the shaping, I moved the plastic sheet underneath it to follow the lines. It turned out easier than the other way. 

Then just stencil onto the wood! Voila!

My Kitchen Window Decoration

I made this cute sign in May sometime during my time of unemployment. I really love the way it turned out and I think it looks fabulous as an accent for our small kitchen window.

Sorry for the lack of photos, when I made the sign I didnt take step by step progress photos, and now my camera seems to be eluding me. But it was a super easy project.

I started out with an old weathered, beat up board. My Boyfriend, who works at a lumber yard, snagged the awesome piece for me (among some others) and after holding it up to the window I saw this particular piece was just the perfect sign.

With funds limited and not one who likes to spend money on projects, I scrounged around the house for some sort of excess paint I could use to slather on for the background. It needed something else besides just letters painted onto the board. Fortunately, there was a half gallon paint can left from the previous homeowners of our house (we have lived here over a year, by the way, so the integrity of the paint was yet to be seen), and after stirring the displaced paint, I discovered that it was just the perfect off-white color I was looking for. Without a large paintbrush (only small intricate ones), I used a stick to scoop some paint from the can and onto the board, then selected the largest brush I had (which was about half an inch) to smear it across the board.

Once I was satisfied with the paint coat, I let dry and took the dog for a trip to the lake. Upon returning I found the board was dry and ready for the lettering. I hand drew the lettering and stenciled it onto the board, then hand painted each letter with acrylic craft paint. I stenciled out the design for the chicken as well, and painted him in the center.

After all dry, I screwed some hangers to the back and hung the beauty on the wall. It was only at this time did I realize the "Kitchen" on the board was not straight.

I nearly wanted to paint over it and redo it. But I decided to let it stay in it's askew fashion, only adding more charm to the piece, right?

The Lasso Welcome Sign

Keeping in theme with lasso ropes from yesterday's post, a wedding gift I made for a friend this last June:

The Lasso Welcome Sign! I wanted to give the newlyweds something special and completely unique. It also had to be something personal and with a little flair of "wedding" to it. They are country bumpkins like myself, so I knew this piece would work in their decor and style. This was a fairly simple project as well, with supplies I already had on hand.

Supplies Needed/Used:

A used lasso rope - spent $5 on rope off craigslist.
Old beat up and weathered wood
Black paint
Rustic wire and embellishments
Hot glue gun
Twine

Create!

The first step was to create the wording for the welcome part of the sign. Because I dont have my own stenciling machine, or even stencils for that matter, I had to create my own letters to use. I actually found an A to Z letters page from this font that I liked online, enlarged to size on my computer screen, then traced it onto a piece of paper. That's right, traced it off of the computer screen.

With my letters on paper, the second step was to transfer them from the paper to the wood by writing over the lines firmly while on the wood. This left an imprint of the lettering in the wood. It was faint, but I could see it and follow the lines.

Now it was time to actually paint the letters. This third step was the most labor intensive of it all, but still only took about an hour or so. I hand painted the letters in a next-to-black acrylic brown paint, then simply, let it dry.

The board looked a little plain to me, so that's when I added the twisted rusty wire (just the faithful ole method of twisting wire around a pencil for the look) and rustic heart embellishments to the wood. I simply hot glued the wire to the back of the board to secure in place. In hindsight, there probably was a much more effective way of attaching it, but all I had on hand was got glue and it seemed to do the trick.

Next was the fifth step; the one that really baffled me. How was I going to attach the wooden board to the lasso rope? With the rope already secured to shape with unseen twine, I just had to find a way to attach the two items together. This is where my handy Boyfriend came into play. He screwed two small holes on the upper part of the wood, at an angle in the back to allow the twine to run through. Clever Boyfriend! Can't even see it from the front!

So this final step was to run the twine through the holes, and secure it to the lasso rope. I then cut another piece of twine and ran it through the lasso ropes in the back and tied it across to create a hanger to hand the welcome sign by. I signed and dated the back of the board, and wrapped it up in festive wedding attire for the big day.

They opened the gift and were floored by it. So I knew just what to make for the next country couple getting married only a few months later....although I did not get a photo of the second design.

Linked up to The Craft-O-Maniac.