Santa Claus is coming to town, y’all!  To prep for Kris Kringle’s visit, I decided to create a playful little holiday sign that combined the man himself with an ode to the classic Journey song.  It’s a match made in heaven!

I’ve seen variations of this design all over the interwebs and always loved the chuckle-worthy pun, so now that it’s Christmastime again, I decided to make my own!

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

 

Don’t Stop Believing Santa Christmas Sign

Supplies

• Old wooden sign from a thrift store
• Black & white spray paints
• Painter’s tape
• Vinyl: red, black, and silver
• Silhouette Cameo & cutting mat

 

Design Elements

I created my design in Silhouette Studio since I would be cutting it out in vinyl with my Silhouette Cameo.  And since I know there will be lots of you wanting all the specifics (everybody loves the details!), here’s some info about the elements:

Santa Graphic: I have some Silhouette Design Store download credit just burning a hole in my digital pocket (it’s actually from a Christmas Silhouette gift card present last year!), so I purchased this adorable Santa face.  The image is also part of this free dingbat font, but the quality is much lower, especially around Santa’s cheeks.  Since I would be using a large Santa on this sign, I needed a high-quality cut file, so I gladly spent the .99.

Snowflakes:  You know I love my dingbats (check out my list of favorite chalkboard ones, and this for how to use them…they’re so easy and handy!).  I downloaded this free dingbat font that has a lot of cute snowflake designs that would be easy for my Silhouette to cut.

Font for ‘don’t stop believing’: You may also know that I love The Hungry JPEG!  They are a great site for incredible font bundles and other digital goodies, and I snag every one of their monthly bundles (you can see what I made with their September bundle here and October bundle here).  They’re such a great value AND they come with full commercial rights!

For the beautiful script font in this sign, I used a font from their November bundle called Snatchy….it’s such a fun scripty-but-not-too-formal handwritten font.

 

Here are all the amazing fonts that are part of The Hungry JPEG’s Fontabulous Font Bundle….over 70 of ’em!

This amazing bundle is only $29, BUT you can get an additional 20% off by using the code Smiles 20!  Woot Woot! :)  You better hurry though because this bundle is only available in November and you don’t want to let it slip by!

 

Prepping the Sign

Several months ago, I stopped at our local Salvation Army thrift store and snagged a set of four signs for $1 a piece.  They were in very good condition and could easily be redone, had cute beveled edges, and already had a slot cut out in the back so they were ready for hanging.  They were a steal!

They also had a sticker on the back saying they are limited edition prints, but a quick eBay search made me go forward with this project….they’re only worth a little more than what I paid for them.  Nuts!  I was hoping my husband would be able to retire but nope, no lottery find here.  But that just meant more crafting possibilities! ;)

 

I first gave one of the boards a quick hand sanding to remove any dirt and grime, then sprayed it down with some black spray paint.

 

Once it was dry, I taped off the beveled edges with some painter’s tape and then sprayed the center down with some white spray paint (and I apparently forgot to take a picture after this step….whoops!).

 

The Vinyl Pieces

I was also apparently a little too eager to get this project going because you’ll notice how the black edges look in the below picture: rough.  I must have not let the black paint dry enough before adding the painter’s tape and white paint.  When I removed the tape, some of the black paint came with it….yikes!

But like Bob Ross, I decided to view this as a happy little accident instead of a mistake.  Distressed is in after all!  And I actually really like the aged look of the frame now.  It’s pretty cool!

The next step was then cutting out my design elements in vinyl using my Silhouette Cameo: Santa was in red, the words were in black, and the snowflakes in silver.

 

I first applied Santa’s happy little face….

 

….followed by the words….

 

….then finished the sign by applying the snowflakes.

 

The Finished Don’t Stop Believing Santa Christmas Sign!

And here’s the jolly old elf himself!  I love, love, LOVE how this sign turned out!  It’s the perfect little whimsical, light-hearted piece of holiday decor….very much our style.  I can’t wait to display this with the rest of our Christmas decor!

 

If You Enjoyed This….

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

 

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Merry Christmas!