How To Make your Own Rustic Signs

I really thought that making these old signs would be a lot harder than people make it look... turns out, they're as easy as can be! I'll warn you though, it does take a little bit of time and energy, but when you're finished, you will be very proud of your work!
So here are the instructions: step-by-step.


Start with a piece of scrap wood. A boring, lonely, scrap of wood. The uglier, the better! This one had big nails and holes in it already. And a stain. Perfect!

 

 

 

 Paint it white, or whatever color you'd like as a main color.

 

Then, after it has dried, paint another color over the white. Something that will show through the white when you sand it down.

I chose a brick-red color.

 

 

I got so excited, thinking it was going to turn out, I painted 2 more planks of ugly wood!

Now, once the second layer has dried, paint one more layer of white on it.

 

After more drying time, start sanding that paint off! Make it rustic, make it old, and make it worn-out!

 

They're really lookin' cool!

 

So now, go on your computer, and choose a font, whether it be online, or on Microsoft Word. Type your message in the desired font, make it extra extra large and print it out!

 

Next, tape your phrase onto the wood so it doesn't slip around.

 

 

Now this is the part I could never understand. How can you get the words onto the wood? Very simple, here's my way:

Use a pen to press down (really hard) on the words.

 

 

This will leave a dent in the wood where you were drawing so hard. I traced the dents with my pen so you could see better on the camera, it really dents the wood, making it easy to outline the words better!

 

 

Once you've done all the tracing . . .

 

 

It's time to start painting!

 

 

Isn't that "Pumpkin" sign cool? It looks 3-D!

 

And once your painted words have dried (this is optional, by the way,) sand and wear out the words to make it all blend together.

 

 

Also, another optional tip is to outline the words with dark paint, or a pen. I used gel pens for two reasons:

 

Reason Number #1 - I like gel pens.

Reason Number #2 - Instead of having a harsh line and taking away the rustic effect, you can choose similar pen colors to make it blend, but the words still stand out a little because they are outlined.

 

 

So, that's it! Easy Peasy, Rice - and - Cheesy!

 

 

 

Thanks for reading! More posts coming soon!