If you’re a crafty gal who just moved into a new house that’s out in the country, and one of your favorite shows just happens to be Fixer Upper, what are you supposed to do??  If you answered create your own DIY farmhouse sign, you’d be correct!

Cover the house with shiplap would also be an acceptable answer, but unfortunately, this gal doesn’t have the time, energy, or wallet size for that just yet….but there’s always tomorrow!

Yep, I recently made a farmhouse sign to adorn our mantel, and it’s two things I love: personalized and playful.  Keep reading for the full tutorial!

Oh, and be sure to enter my awesome giveaway for a HUGE font and graphics bundle too!

[There are affiliate links in this post, and many thanks to the awesome folks at The Hungry JPEG for sponsoring today’s fun!]

 

DIY Farmhouse Sign: Personalized Love & Shenanigans

Supplies

One of the nice things about this sign is that I was able to use supplies I already had on hand….yep, it pays to be a craft hoarder!  At least that’s what I tell my husband.

• Sanded wood board (roughly sized 11″ x 24″)
• Stain, paper towels, & disposable gloves
• White spray paint
• Silhouette Cameo, 12″ x 24″ cutting mat, & blade
• Stencil film & transfer tape
• Scraper, scissors, & craft tweezers
• Sand paper & steel wool
• Light brown furniture wax, paint brush, & rag
• Twine & hot glue

 

My Personalized Farmhouse Design

Earlier this year, we moved into a new house, and I am continually trying to decorate it and make it our own.  Give it that homey, lived in, comfortable feel, ya know?  It’s also out in the country, and since Joanna Gaines is my spirit animal, I’m going with the Fixer Upper vibe as our decorating style.

And what better thing to display than our very own farmhouse sign, right??  I mean besides shiplap, french doors, and hardwood floors (although we’ve already got those!).

For our farmhouse sign, I wanted it to be very us.  That meant nothing too sappy or sentimental, and with just the right amount of cheekiness.  It also needed to be personalized since that’s a *slight* obsession of mine, and this is of course OUR home.

Here’s the saying I came up with:

our home is built on love, laughter, and lots of shenanigans

After all, dictionary.com defines shenanigans as “mischief or prankishness.”  Yep, that sums up my husband and toddler pretty well.  Plus, we have another little one on the way this fall, and I’m sure the shenanigans will only increase.

And my husband is quite thrilled to have a reference to Super Troopers now prominently displayed in our living room.

 

My Design Mockup

I’d be creating the stencil for my design with my beloved Silhouette Cameo, so I drafted a mockup in Silhouette Studio first, just to make sure everything looked a-okay.  Visual A-type here.

You all are probably aware by now that I am a huge–HUGE I SAY–font addict, and the monthly bundles from The Hungry JPEG never let me down.  I’ve created all kinds of crafty things with them in the past, such as:

• Our (also farmhouse) Home Sweet Home sign
• My vinyl scraps organizer decal
• A playful Shake Your Booty mug
• Some hand-scripted Valentine cupcake toppers
• A “Don’t Stop Believing” Santa Christmas sign
• Our sassy moving announcements
• A colorful spring bunny door hanger

See?  Lots of versatile amazingness is guaranteed.

Plus, they always include some incredible graphic packs on top of all the premium font awesomeness.  Just check out what’s included in this month’s July Bundle (hint: 26 premium fonts, 22 graphic packs, AND a commercial license!):

This bundle is only available for the month of July (so hurry!) and it’s for 97% off retail.  You can also save an additional 20% by using the discount code Smiles20 (and this code is good for 20% off ANY bundle too!).  You can also try and score it for free by entering the giveaway below!

Alrighty, back to the tutorial….

For this sign, I used not one, not two, but THREE different resources from their July Bundle:

1. The vines are a part of a logo design from the Design Elements Blog Kit (see below for more info on how I used this in Silhouette Studio).
2. Our last name and wedding year are in the font called Young Heart.
3. The main message is in the Hello Sweets font.
4. Obviously not a part of any design deal, but I need to visualize my final design, so I added some virtual twine just for kicks.

 

Like I mentioned, the vines came from a premade logo that is part of the Design Elements Blog Kit.  In order to be able to use that with my Silhouette Cameo, I just opened up the .png file and traced it.  That converted the image to cut lines.

Since I only needed the vines and not the wording, I simply released the compound path and deleted the middle portion.  Super simple!

And I must have a thing for partial vine frames because I used a similar look for our Home Sweet Home sign!

 

Cutting the Stencil

Now that the design was finalized, it was time to cut my stencil….’cause lord knows I can’t paint this by hand!

I cut the stencil for this sign out of some stencil film with my Silhouette Cameo.  I LOVE using it for stencils and prefer it over vinyl.  It worked great for our personalized IKEA Lazy Susan as well as our Roman numeral anniversary sign.

In order to avoid making this tutorial 857 miles long, I’ll spare all the details about why I love this stuff so much.  Instead, you can check this out!

I first cut off a section of stencil film from my GIANT roll and loaded it on my cutting mat and then into my Silhouette Cameo.  And those two cans of spray paint were my DIY hack for keeping the cutting mat from shifting near the end.  I’ve used canned goods too….whatever gets the job done! :)

I’m also currently planning out my dream craft room, which is why I’m getting my craft on on a card table smashed against the window at the moment….

 

Here are the cut settings that I generally use for this stencil film, but always do a test cut first:

• Blade: 1
• Speed: 5
• Thickness: 10

 

Once cut, I started weeding (or removing) all the inner bits of the loopy letters, then got to peeling away the larger sections.

My board would be stained first, then I would apply the stencil and add some spray paint.  Once the stencil is removed, it would reveal the stained design underneath.  So I guess if you want to get all technical, I’m using a reverse stencil method.

 

Staining the Wood Board

I’d be using a wood board that I had originally planned for another project last summer.  I ended up abandoning that project after one coat of stain because, well, life got in the way.  Maybe someday I’ll get back around to that one.

So for this beauty, I added a couple more coats of dark stain with some paper towels, then let it dry overnight.

 

Applying the Stencil to the Wood Board

I added some clear transfer tape overtop the weeded stencil so I could get my entire design transferred over in one piece.

 

Spray Painting the Wood Board

I then dodged some pop-up summer storms and headed back outside to get my spray paint on.  I first gave a very light and rough coat to the back, then once dry, flipped it over and did two more coats to the front and sides.

 

Removing the Stencil & Distressing the Sign

A little while later, after the paint was fully dried, I slowly and carefully peeled away all the tiny bits of the stencil….and breathed a sigh of relief to see that all the elements came out perfectly!

BUT, this is a farmhouse sign after all, and these things aren’t meant to be perfect.  Nope, we’re going for a roughed up, aged, well-lived look.

To turn my brand new sign into an antique thing of beauty, all it took was a little sand paper, steel wool, and elbow grease.

 

Antiquing the Sign with Some Wax

To help tone down the bright white paint and to give a little seal and protection, I added a coat of some light brown antique furniture wax.

This stuff is pretty amazing and it worked great for a few furniture makeovers I’ve done, including updating our coffee and end tables with some chalk paint, making over my Hello Gorgeous mirror, and upcycling our bronze-dipped bar stools.

And it’s so easy to use!  Just apply some with a paint brush….

 

….then, after a while, rub and buff it off with a rag.  Super simple!

 

Last Touch: Twine!

Okay, we’re almost done, folks! :)

The last step was simply adding a couple strips of twine with some hot glue.  This was just to give the sign some color and texture, and to help break up the design.  The sign is very tall after all, so separating the elements in a different way could only help to add some interest….at least that was the plan. #itmakessenseinmyhead

 

Our Final Personalized DIY Farmhouse Sign!

And here it is!  Gahhhh, I just LOVE how it turned out, and it looks so great up on our mantel.  The colors coordinate so perfectly with the rest of our home (which is still a work-in-progress, FYI), and the playful, cheeky saying is so very us.  Just perfect, all around. :)

 

If You Enjoyed This….

Make sure you check out my Project Gallery for lots of my other crafty creations, including these:

 

 

 

 

 

The Hungry JPEG’s July Bundle Giveaway!

But wait, there’s more! :)

The awesome folks at The Hungry JPEG are continuing their generosity and offering up another FREE bundle for a lucky reader!  For your chance to win the July Bundle, just complete as many entries in the giveaway widget below as you’d like.  Good luck and happy designing! :)

 

{This giveaway runs from today through Wednesday, July 13th at 11:59p eastern.  Winner will be randomly chosen and have 48 hours to respond to email or another winner will be selected.}

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Thanks so much for stopping by!