Making a Vintage Sign diy
- By Joan
- March 23, 2015
- 20 Comments
Happy Spring everyone.
About a month ago I was scavenging around an old house. It had probably been abandoned 50 years ago and what remained was mostly trash, glass and other junk, but not the good kind. I had been here before and found some corrugated metal but had left a couple of pieces…so now I was back and going to retrieve those pieces. The only problem was, I couldn’t find them. They were gone… is there another scavenger in the area? That’s just not right.
The reason I bring up my missing corrugated metal is, that on that trip, I found a couple of pieces of old wood. Not wanting to go home empty handed, they were tossed into the car.
In order to make a vintage sign, it helps to have a hunk of vintage wood around. This piece fit the bill, complete with dirt and cobwebs.
If you don’t have a piece of vintage wood around, feel free to use new, but you’re going to have to bang it around a bit. Anything you have sitting around could be used to distress a new piece of wood…either end of a hammer, a chain, a meat tenderizer hammer, a chisel, a screwdriver…if it has a point or a texture on it, you can distress a piece of wood.
You could also use a few pieces of pallet wood attached together on the back. Because these are narrower boards there will be a seam (or two) on your sign. The benefit of using pallet wood is the aged look of the wood.
I cleaned the dirt and cobwebs off and painted the rest of the board a beautiful teal semigloss paint leftover from the interior of my Storage Cupboard. I left the edges unpainted, and it was a little light in other areas (by the way, that was on purpose).
Once the teal was dry, followed up with a coat of putty colored tan. Again, I painted most of the board, covering up most of the teal. The teal showed through in some of the ridges.
I picked out a great graphic for my sign, Button’s Raven Gloss Shoe Dressing. This was found over at Knick of Time. Angie has a whole bunch of Antique graphics and Images just waiting to be downloaded. More can also be found at The Graphics Fairy as well as just googling Vintage Signs.
Once I had my image, it was imported into PUBLISHER. There you can create any blank page size you want. Since my board was 12’x24″, that was now my blank page size. My Raven then was stretched to fit my page.
This is a print preview. Normally, 12″x 24″ would print on 6 pieces of paper. I slid my Raven over so that I would only need 4 sheets.
All printed out on the 4 sheets of paper. Just need to trim the white edging off and tape together.
To transfer the image to the wood you’ll need to create your own carbon paper. Just use pencil. Scribble on the back wherever the image is.
Tape the logo onto your sign and use a pen and trace the outline of the image as well as all the lettering.
If all goes well, you should be left with a pencil outline of your sign.
This is where your paint by number skills come in handy. A good tiny brush is a must…no extra fuzzy bristles.
I ended up not transferring the “shoe dressing” part of the sign in the lower right hand corner, instead, opting for a black border.
Still looked a bit newish, so the sander came back out. Finished with a coat of wax with a stain built in.
I still have another piece of old wood sitting out in my garage so don’t be surprised if another sign pops up one of these days.
Shared at Metamorphosis Monday, Show and Share, Inspire me Tuesday, Vintage Inspiration party,
Wow us Wednesdays, Treasure Hunt Thursdays, Think and Make Thursday, Handmade Hangout Party,
Friday Favorites, Catch as Catch Can, Link Party Palooza, Funky Junk Party Junk,
Show me Saturday, DIY Sunday Showcase, Silver Pennies Sundays, That DIY Party
Amaze me Monday and Nifty Thrifty sunday
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Brilliant. Must try this.
What a great tutorial. I have interesting pieces of wood piled up waiting for something cool like this to have done to them.
I did take some interesting pieces and paint the word ‘adopt’ on them and the ‘O’ wasn’t an O it was a paw print. They were salvaged cedar planks. But the very rustic ones such as your needs to have a rustic signage put on them as you did.
Quite a striking sign – great graphics.
Great tutorial!! Love the look and will have to try this method.
Thank you.
Your sign is fabulous. It’s the perfect marriage of a battered old board and vintage graphics, finished to perfection.
Bet you could sell those. Ones with peoples names or states mentioned are popular.
You did a fabulous job transforming my image into an incredible, and very authentically vintage looking sign – love it! Thanks for sharing it at the Vintage Inspiration Party – I’m so glad I got to see how you used the image!
You do amazing work!
Love this! Great job!
Great DIY project! I learned something new and will be pinning this one! Thank you for sharing!
The is a great project! Thanks for sharing.
LOVE this…what an awesome sign! Love the vintage wood!!
What a great tutorial, this turned out looking really authentic! Love it!
Hi Joan, you did it again. Love the sign!! Check out Friday Favorites at Mustlovehome.com this week to see your sign featured:) Hugs – Christine
love this!! what is a ‘good tiny brush’ exactly? Does it have a tip? A blunt straight edge? I don’t seem to have success w/ the painting part – any tips would be appreciated!
If you have ever done paint by number, it’s that type of brush , but use a nicer quality. I found these over at Hobby Lobby to give you a visual…http://shop.hobbylobby.com/products/crafter-s-choice-camel-hair-round-and-detail-brush-509992/. Just take your time and stay in the lines. You can do it!
thanks for the link. I tried something like this before and had trouble controling the tip of the brush. It prob. was not the right quality. Will try again!
Joan, you’ve entered a new zone. I would never have had the patience to execute this one, but look what transpires when you do. Oh my word…. this sign is magnificent and looks totally authentic!
Featuring you in this weekend’s Party Junk! 🙂
I love when you feature me. It’s actually very therapeutic. Definitely stopping by the party tonight.
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