Love Sign Tutorials

I've had a few comments asking for tutorials on the love quote

                                       

love sign and

 love bird sign

 

These are all made using the same technique so I thought I'd combine them into one post.  First you need rough sawn fence boards- If you've been following My Dear Trash for a while you've seen some of the different variations I've done of the love sign...

Here the boards were painted white, the love is in red with a dark glaze for distressing

For this love sign I chose cedar rough sawn fence boards because I loved the natural color and I didn't need to paint the wood. Sometimes I like to use the thin boards (red and white love sign) and sometimes I like to use the thick.  Once you have your boards decide how big you want it to be.  I usually take the height and double it for the width- I just use my eye as a proportion gauge.  Most of my signs are between 3 and 4 feet wide.  Cut your boards to the desired width and secure them together using furring strips like this...

Now your'e ready for paint in whatever background color you like.  Next is the image.  For the Love signs I used mistral font and printed "Love" on a transparency.  The bird image is one you can purchase from stockphoto (just google bird and branch silhouette) and the love quote is an image I created in word processing.  You'll need to purchase ink jet transparencies so you can run it right through your personal printer.  I then use an overhead to project the image onto the boards.  Trace in pencil or chalk and then paint, using a small brush.  Sand the entire project, which will soften the paint, including the edges and apply dark briwax to the entire surface to add that aged look.  If you don't have an overhead projector, create your image and save it as a jpeg.  You can then download your jpeg image to blockposter.com and blow it up to the desired size- it will print on your printer as individual pages that you can tape together.  I would then use carbon paper under the image, trace the image onto your wood and then fill in with paint.  These signs are so versatile and make great statement pieces in a room or at an event.  Let me know if you have any questions and send pictures if you make one of your own.  Love, Kelly.