Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Vintage Name Board

So I've been seeing these awesome vintage looking signs all over Blogland. So of course, I had to jump on the bandwagon and try it myself.

I had some old barnwood that's been chillin' in my garage for a while. This stuff is HARD to find. You'd swear it was made of gold. Geez! I mean, I live in the... I guess it'd be the suburbs? We're ten minutes from a big city but we have a lot of farms around us. There is an alpaca farm up the road, a longhorn up another road, cows everywhere, it's pretty cool, I love where we live. But being that there are so many farms and such around us, I thought that old wood would be easy to find. Like, laying on the side of the road, begging for me to pick it up, easy to find. But nope. No luck on Craigslist, driving around, nada. But luckily, there is a little thing called Facebook. I put up a status that I was looking for old wood, and a friend came to my rescue. She had some that she was no longer going to be using (she's a baby photographer with a ton of props) and offered it to me. Gotta love the generosity of people!

I found a tutorial on Funky Junk Interiors that I used. Seriously, SO easy! And if you mess up? Well, that's part of the charm, right? And we'll just say we planned it.

So the first thing I did was decide what colors I wanted to use. She suggests that a bright color as the base coat, followed by a darker, less scary color on top is the way to go.

I picked up these stencils at Hobby Lobby. They were originally $5.99, but use those 40% off coupons, people! It came as three large sheets, but I cut out each letter individually. I'm crazy like that.


I didn't want to paint more of the board than I needed to (so I could use it for another future project), so I figured out my placement, put a mark on the board so I knew how far to paint, and then started painting. For my first coat, I picked a pretty blueish teal color. Which I love and would totally would have rocked it as the top coat, but hubby would have looked at me like I was insane. So my gorgeous color is on the bottom.


I made sure to get the blue in all the cracks and crevices. Then I did my red color on the top. I didn't put it on too thick, just a bunch of light coats left to right. I didn't want to completely cover up the blue color.


Now, I could have done the red color and then hit it up with some sandpaper, but I'm all about saving time. So the light coats mimicked the sandpaper. I think. At this point, my 7 year old came into the room, and after seeing it, she said "Wow, Mom! You made it look like it's really, really old! Like, twenty years old!" So if 20 is old, Mommy must be ancient. Yikes.

So my next step is putting on the letters. Pretty simple stuff. Lay down a stencil, fill it in lightly with some yellow paint. Put down the next letter, rise and repeat, etc etc.


So, at this point, it's looking pretty good, right? This is where I got out my sandpaper, and lightly hit up the letters to where the red is starting to show. And it's looking all awesome and old. Like, twenty years old.


After that, I sawed off the end, and hit it up with some matte clear sealer, and voila! C'est fini.




Easy peasy, japanesy.

If I did a giveaway of one of these, with your last name or something under 8ish letters, would you be interested?


Photobucket


Let's party, what what!

17 people love me:

Dianne said... [Reply to comment]

cute idea..love your mantel..you have got my brain a stiring..thanks

Kristin said... [Reply to comment]

These kind of signs are really neat - I love how you used the blue underneath ... a giveaway with one of these would be very cool!

Jes Humrich said... [Reply to comment]

I LOVE this!

Marie C. said... [Reply to comment]

This is such a neat idea. And yes, a giveaway would be awesome!

Randi said... [Reply to comment]

This makes me want one now. Ive seen them all over the blogs too, was thinking they would be cute with my girls names, but the thought of doing 5 scared me a little. Now that you've inspired me to do our family name it might get done ;)

Him, Me, Wee 3 said... [Reply to comment]

What a great idea! And not complicated at all. Id be interested.

jandjhome said... [Reply to comment]

I'd love it. It came out so cute.

Beth @beth-adam.blogspot.com said... [Reply to comment]

TOO CUTE!! :) Of course a giveaway would be awesome!! :)

Delightful Deets said... [Reply to comment]

I love it! I would love it if you did a giveaway :)

Miss Lou said... [Reply to comment]

love it! I need to do something like this!!

MrsLuckyLee said... [Reply to comment]

I would LOVE if you did a giveaway of this!!! LOVE IT!!! plus, I just love giveaways anyways!

Donnie said... [Reply to comment]

That is really a cute signs and I think a lot of people would be interested in one for a giveaway.

Tammy @ Type A said... [Reply to comment]

very cute, and I agree with Donnie, it would make a great give away! thanks for sharing this at my party!

Debilou ~ Mississippi Mama said... [Reply to comment]

your sign looks great,,love that blue color. I think it would make a great giveaway.

Nicole@thiscreativeadventure said... [Reply to comment]

I have been looking for wood for something similar and you're right, it is hard to find! Thanks so much for the Stylish Blogger Award, it was a fun surprise to come home to!

LadyinFuchsia said... [Reply to comment]

It looks so nice. Very lovely idea~!!
A giveaway would be an amazing idea!

Unknown said... [Reply to comment]

Dude, I just went through your whole blog looking for this. Hehehe. My last name is Dixon too. I picked up a bunch of "D"s at Michaels this weekend to get a thang going like you've got here. I think I will definitely try this tutorial out as well. Thanks for the inspiration, my fellow Dixon!