Patriotic wood sign {or any saying you like}

I'm going to share how I created my wood sign, this is by no means "the" way to do it or the best method, this is just what worked for me. There are hundreds of tutorials all over the web for these signs, so you can find other methods as well.

Materials needed:

• Piece of plywood {your choice on size}
• Sandpaper or sandpaper inserts if you have an electric sander
• Paints and primer. {decide how many colors you want before shopping, it makes it easier.} Get the 8 oz sample sizes, so much less expensive and you'll still have plenty left over.
• Sealer spray
• Martha Stewart transfer paper {HL rarely has this so I had to purchase mine at Michael's.}
• Paint brushes, small hand roller {small paint brushes, usually $3 to $4 for a set at Home Depot}
• Something to pour paint in.
• Pen
• Computer with a word processing program
• Scotch tape

Getting started:
Measure the width and length of your plywood and keep these for later. First thing I did was paint a layer of primer, then a layer of my base color, navy blue. I did not worry too much about making sure there were no white areas because I prefer the rustic look and since I knew I would be sanding it down later, I just went with the flow.

Now for the work part:
1) On your computer open a word processing program. Publisher is my program of choice but Word will work just fine. Anything that allows you to change the size of the paper and the layout, and change fonts.

2) Decide how many groups of words or fonts you want your saying to be in. I used 8 pages for mine.

3) Now take your measurements for your plywood and figure out how to make that fit on your page. For example my plywood was 14" across, so I choose landscape legal paper. Obviously you can't get much larger than that at home unless you plan on printing them out at Kinko's or something, and for larger projects that is fine. I wanted to just do mine at home. So I decided my first word grouping was going to be "I pledge". I typed that in the center of the page in a text box and expanded the text box to fit end to end on the page (the blue box on publisher is the suggested printing area, I went a little outside that since I knew the width of my sign.) Next I enlarged the font until it filled the area I wanted filled. Next I right clicked, choose format font and then "outline". This will save you a TON of ink. Make sure to do this to all of your words.

4) Now I still had some empty paper space so I decided to add my second word grouping, a single word, "allegiance". I added a new text box, and did the same thing, typed the word out made it large and selected a font. The font is up to you, I wanted something that to me looked vintage Americana.

 

5.) Once you have finished all of your words print them out.  If your sign is dry by now, great, it is hot and humid in Texas so I ended up having to bring mine inside and allowing it to dry in the air conditioned house for a day. Nonetheless I could still hold my paper up to it to see if it would fit without messing up the paint. It didn't, so I went back to my program and resized my text boxes (the one you see above is the resized version.) I went through and resized every word grouping (again good old trial and error here.)

6.) Once that was finished and my plywood was dry came the time to add the words to the sign. I used Martha Stewart transfer paper because the impression is an off white color that is easy to read on dark colored paints. Transfer is just like carbon paper if you've ever used that, (showing my age here). One side is coated and one side is not. Martha's paper is particularly nice because it has "this side up" on the side you trace on.

7) Now lay down your tracing paper according to the instructions. Tape it down with scotch removable tape. Now lay down your paper with the printed words, secure it with tape. Now take your pen and begin tracing the outlines of the letters. MAKE SURE EVERYTHING IS STRAIGHT! (Not that I messed up or anything ;-) ). Trace the outlines of your letters, in some letters such as the "e" in allegiance, I made the outside of the letter a little larger and the inside of the letter (the hole) a little smaller. While you are tracing keep in mind that you are going to have to fit a paint brush and paint in the lines. 

8) Keep doing this for each grouping of letters, making sure they are straight and line up as you would like. (Not all of mine do, see the note at the end regarding this.)  Unless you buy a lot of tracing paper you will need to pull off your tape, remove the tracing paper and reuse it on another section. You can get several times use out of one sheet so don't throw it away.

9.) When you're done tracing remove all the papers and tracing paper.  Now stand back and admire your beautiful letters! (And let your cramped hand rest.)

10.) Next examine your sign and make sure everything is to your liking. Don't be too picky about this. (see note at end.) If there is something you just can't live with, such as my words that were crooked, use an eraser, I suggest the block Pink Pearl erasers like we used in school, (you can find these at Hobby Lobby or anywhere really) when we actually wrote with pencil and paper. If you do mess up and want to redo your trace lines, just erase the ones you don't want. It may not come completely off but it will come off enough that you shouldn't get confused with the old trace lines and the new ones.

11.)  Now comes the fun part, pick what color you want your group of words to be and start painting. I used 3 brushes on one word to make sure I got all the thin lines.

12.) (Optional) Once your words are painted all to dry at least a day or two then using sand paper sand away until you get the roughened look you like. 

13.) Spray with clear sealer and allow to dry. If you would like to add extras such as embellishments or bows, etc, do it after the sealer has dried.

14.) Now display with pride!

Note: Remember the charm of these signs are that they are nostalgic of the old days when people did things by hand. Therefore don't get frustrated if your words come out slightly crooked, too close together, or if you don't like the way you painted a certain word. This is all supposed to be a tribute to the art of hand lettering which isn't perfect! So chill, make something from the heart and it will always come out perfect.