sign Archives - Page 5 of 6 - Spoonful of Imagination

Personalized Painted Sign {tips on how to freehand}

March 13, 2013 By Erica Deuel 8 Comments

My sister, Olivia, is in town from Arkansas with my little niece, Charleigh. It’s been so much fun hanging out with them for the past week and a great help distracting from all the house stuff we have been going through.

Olivia, my mom, and I went to dinner and shopping last night w/o kids. It was so fun!

Olivia, just graduated from Liberty College, and I couldn’t be prouder of her. As part of her graduation present, I made her this little sign. Today, I want to show you how to make it while giving you some tips that I have learned on how to freehand paint letters.

I think this little wood sign makes such a great wedding present (as Sing is Olivia’s last name) or fun personalized present to give at other times like a college graduation, birthday, or Christmas gift.

The fist step is to find a nice piece of wood. I found this rustic, old piece and knew it was perfect. I love the beat up charm, but it also is thick and solid.

After you sand the wood, find a pretty font on the computer that you like. Print it out the correct size you will need and cut the letters out. This is a cheap way to make your own stencil.

Once the letters have been placed and aligned where you want them on your piece of wood, you simply trace them with a pencil.

The next step is to paint inside the lines with a small brush. You can pick any desire color you want to paint. Remember you don’t have to paint it super thick or even, since you are going to give the lettering a light sanding later. You want them to be slightly imperfect and rustic to match the beat up wood’s charm.

Sometimes making a stencil just doesn’t make sense. If you are wanting a font that is thin, small or more “flow-y”, cutting out a stencil doesn’t make sense. This is where it would be good to know how to freehand letters. I don’t have the best hand at this skill, but I have learned some tips that have helped me grow. I want to share those with you.

I hope these tips will help you as you paint freehand letters as well. The next step to finishing your sign is to give it a light sanding. Once you are done sanding, you stain it, let it dry, and display it (or package it up to give away).

It was such a cheap yet really special item to add to my sister’s graduation present. She loves it! Thank you so much for stopping by, and I hope you all are having a great week!

*Linked up at View Along the Way

Girl’s Craft Night + Baby Shower

February 6, 2013 By Erica Deuel 5 Comments

The other night I got a chance to throw a little girl’s night + craft night + baby shower all in one event with my friend Erin.

We had a blast planning it together for our good friend Dana, and it ended up being such a fun night. It was low key, and the perfect blend of girl time, crafts, good food, awesome friends, celebration of life, and pajamas.

Here is a series of pictures from our night with steps on how to make the sweet “girl” banner I made for our party.

Erin and I were anxious for our friends to arrive, so we took a few pictures of ourselves while we waited. This kept us from eating all the pretty food before they arrived.

After everyone arrived, we ate and ate some more, while catching up. The guest of honor is a candy lover, just like me. We are kindred spirits with our sweet taste buds, so I loved having the task of bringing the sweets for the party. I’m not much of a chief, but I can bake some cookies and buy some candy. Thank you Erin for making the fresh creme cheese and dill dip plus the awesome tortilla roll ups. She had the hard stuff.

After we ate, Dana opened her presents, and it was so fun to see her reaction to girly items!

Dana has two boys and is pregnant with her little girl, Jane. We all found out her baby’s name that night, and it was so fun squealing with excitement for her. I love it. I love that she has the same gender and close in age kids as me too.

I have been busily making Dana some hair bows, and last week I showed you how to make the DIY Burlap Hair Bow I made for her. Well, I used that hair bow and others that I had made to form a sweet bouquet to use as a decoration for the shower.

For the shower, we had everyone bring a frame that they would want to turn into a hair bow holder or a memo board. The bouquet was pretty for the shower, but now that the shower is over all those hair bows needed a pretty way to be stored.

For exact details on how to create one of these chicken wire frames please read about my Pallet Memo Board. For this night, I brought a series of wire cutters, my staple gun, and the chicken wire and we got to work helping one another.

It can be a two person job to hold the wire down (from curling up on you) and stapling. Courtney (featured on the left in above pictures) was a great assistant to all of us. This was my favorite part of the night as we all sat around in our pjs and talked, laughed and crafted. I can’t believe I didn’t get a group shot of us all together, but I did manage to get most of our frames in a shot together.

I love creating with friends and I love creating for friends. It was so fun to craft together, and I also really enjoyed preparing for the night. I made the fun “girl” banner out of paint chips.

In short, this is how you too can make this banner!

1. Gather some supplies

paint chips
hole/circle punchers
stickers to spell “girl”
hot glue gun with glue sticks
ribbon
scissors
brown card stock paper

2. Punch circles out of the paint chips. I used my big circle puncher to punch four large circles out, as those would be the circles I spelled “girl” out on. I used the smaller circle puncher to punch a lot more circles out to use along the top of the banner (on either side of “girl”).

3. Glue the four large circles in the center of your ribbon and glue smaller circles up and down the ribbon on either side of it. I just put a small glob of glue on the ugly side of my paint chips and stuck it on the ribbon. You don’t need much glue.

4. I then used white stickers to spell “girl” on my banner, and cut out some big triangles out of the brown card stock and glued them on the other side of my ribbon.

That’s it! The banner is done! How gorgeous is my model here!? Dana wears pregnancy so well!

We had such a fun night honoring Dana and her sweet baby and just being with each other.

Have you ever had or been to a more informal baby shower like this one? I loved being in comfy clothes and having a girls night rather than an early Saturday morning function.

I’m so blessed to have these girls in my life! Now, Ms. Jane! Hurry up and get here! We are all anxious to meet you!

The banner you could turn into a birthday banner or really any celebration decoration! What kid related outing or craft did you do this week!? I adore all the entries from last week, but the one that had me giggling was the one about fire! My friend Heather has boys that my boys would adore playing with, if there were not so many miles in between our homes. Check out her great post on “Why shouldn’t we look at the Sun?” and link up your own post!

Two-Minute Fall Decor

September 18, 2012 By Erica Deuel 1 Comment

Yesterday, I was admiring all the fall decor in Hobby Lobby. Fall is my favorite season, and Hobby Lobby is my favorite store. So, this was a really good moment in my day. While staring at some really cute fall frames, I got the urge to buy one. I checked the prices and didn’t want to spend $15 on a frame that was already %40 off. I decided I would make my own! This is what I came up with…

I literally grabbed a piece of wood I already had, three frames from the dollar store, three nails, and my hammer.

I was set to just tack the frames lightly to the piece of wood. In doing this, it would be easy to pull the nails out every year and replace the picture with a more current picture and then nail the nails back in. Right before I started hammering my frames on, I decided I wanted to spray paint them.

I spray painted them a burnt orange, with some paint I already had. I looked at them laid out and decided I liked it and hammered them in place with one thin nail each.

The dollar store frames were perfect for this craft because instead of glass they had a thin clear plastic to cover the picture. This allowed for the frames to be hammered in without the worry of shattering glass. I had plans to go back and either paint, stencil, or use stickers to create a “Welcome to our Pumpkin Patch” message across the frames like this…

BUT, I fell in love with my new framed art and didn’t want to make it too “seasonal”. I liked the rustic/fall look, but it also keeps my frame more versatile incase I want to use it at other times in the year.

It was so easy and quick! You can do it! Thanks so much for all of those that read about our family the other day! I love sharing about things and people who I love!

Thanks for checking in! I hope you are enjoying this change of seasons too and getting a taste for it in your weather and decor!

Linked up at : Fox Hollow Cottage and Southern Hospitality

A Burlap Sign (showing how to make your own stencil)

June 29, 2012 By Erica Deuel 2 Comments

Hello!! I almost forgot today was my project spotlight day!! Opps!! It would have been bad to lapse only on week two! 🙂 Luckily, I had already edited my pictures and today is not over!

We celebrated Father’s Day a little late because Matt was out-of-town, so today’s post is based on a burlap sign I made him last week for one of his presents.

Does it look familiar to any of you??? It was based on this sign from Target…

I saw this sign and I loved it!! It’s such a simple phrase, but it gives such an incredibly powerful message. When we do what we love and use the gifts/abilities God created us with…aren’t we happier? I feel like not only am I happier but I also do my best work when it is doing something I love. I know I can create a sign a LOT better than I can make dinner. I’m just saying 🙂 I love to craft. I do not love to cook, and it shows in my results!

I fell in love with this sign right away but couldn’t bring myself to buy it. It was $20 regularly priced, and it was on clearance for $15.00. I have a hard time buying anything, if I know I can make it cheaper. My sign cost me $2.00. Here is how I did it…

First, I printed off my computer my “stencil”. I have found that even though this step is extra work-it is so worth it! When you print your “stencil” off, you can use any type font and make it the perfect size without spending a ton of money to have a box full of store-bought stencils. So, I printed my font off and then I used tiny scissors to cut each letter out. Don’t worry this tedious step did not feel so bad, since I did it while watching the bachelorette. (Sorry this pic was taken after being used!)

I used some burlap I already had. You don’t need much!! I used the cardboard piece from the frame to glue my burlap to it. That way the background color (that you see through the burlap) is similar color scheme. I laid my stencil down where I wanted it on the burlap and simply used a paint brush to dab (sponge-like) the paint into the stencil slots.

It was so simple! It looked so good like this, I couldn’t bring myself to try to do the red border. I might go back and do that step though. I liked it enough for now, so I simply added it to my $2.00 frame I had bought at a thrift store. (Sorry! I spray painted and sanded my frame before taking these pictures). Since I had all my supplies but the frame, I was able to make this sweet sign for $2.00. You could make it too!

I made my sign a little bigger than the sign at Target, and in the process also made it more horizontal. The possibilities for your sign or how to use these steps in making a unique sign of your own are endless! I’d love to see some pictures if you try this!

I hope you all had a good week and happy weekend!!! Thanks for checking out my Friday project spotlighted craft!

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