DIY Hand Painted Reclaimed Wood Sign: LOVE & DOGS
Obsessed with Rustic Hand Painted Signs... and Dogs
The opposite of the girl who is distracted by sparkly things, patina is undoubtedly sure to catch my eye. Much like stop-and-smell-the-roses people, I'm a stop-and-pet-the-dogs kind of person. Combine the two, and you've got a recipe for a happy girl. That's just what I did here.
I've never been a super sappy kind of girl. Don't ever expect to receive a sweet, sentimental birthday card from me. Sarcastic, funny, and slightly insulting? Yep. That being said, I'm not so good with the mushy motivational rustic signs that look oh so adorable, but give me a toothache from the sweetness overload. "All You Need is Love" phases are plastered on signs, shirts, stickers, you-name-it, everywhere. It looks great in print and paint, but I needed something more. One of my favorite versions is "All You Need is Love... and a Dog." Since I have two fur-babies, my sign became the plural version.
I was lucky enough to have a few random fence boards lying around my backyard and had been waiting for just the right project to re-purpose these bad boys.
Materials
- Fence board
- Stencil (I used a Cricut to cut out my letters)
- Cardstock
- Spray adhesive
- Spray paint
- Chalk paint (homemade)
- Small paint brush / artist brush
- Sand paper
Method to my Madness
I started out by wiping down my fence board to free it of the unpleasant debris, critters, and critter-debris that had accumulated during its time outdoors becoming rustic.
For my stencil, I used cardstock cut with an older Cricut machine (Cricut Create). The script font is from the Billionaire cartridge and the bold, serif font was found on the Don Juan cartridge, "Under Pressure" tab.
Using a light coat of spray adhesive to the back of my stencil, I placed it on the board and covered the rest of the board with a drop cloth. Laying the board flat on the ground, I used flat white spray paint to lightly fill in my word art stencil.
Let it dry.
Sanding lightly helped to get rid of any light spray that got away and added distressing. I used my tiny paint brush with chalk paint to go over the letters for refined detail and that vintagey, hand-painted, old-timey, farmhouse look that I so love. The ellipsis was painted freehand, don't act like you're not impressed.
Let it dry.
Another light sanding gave me the worn, distressed look I was going for. I propped it up against a wall in my living room, next to the basket of dog toys, and that is where it remains. LOVE.