It’s the Great Pumpkin Vintage Sign
- By Joan
- July 21, 2017
- 3 Comments
If you’ve graduated from chalkboard signs and you would like to try something just a bit more challenging, I may have just the project for you. How about a vintage seed packet painted on reclaimed wood.
This is not my first seed packet sign. I made this Sunflower Seed sign back in 2015.
This time I was motivated by this section of fencing hiding in my storage room. It was found at a salvage yard a couple of years ago and it’s screaming vintage sign.
I could make the same thing out of pallet wood but then I would have to find the pallet, pry the wood off of the pallet, remove the nails then nail it all back together. This one did all the work for me. Oh happy day!
Another chunk of the same fencing that was used as a door on my pallet wood garden back in 2015.
I’m happy to report the garden is still intact and I’m even happier to report that I picked a few nice sized zucchini earlier in the week. The battle of the garden from last year has been won (I’m keeping my fingers crossed). I still have a hard time getting into the garden ( don’t ask, just read last years post) but I’m happy to report lots of green tomatoes on the vines.
Back to the project at hand…now I needed an image for my vintage sign.
The hunt didn’t take long for me to find this cute vintage pumpkin seed packet. Searching one of my favorite sites, Graphics Fairy, I found this great pumpkin, perfect for fall or Halloween.
Just like my chalkboard signs from a couple of weeks ago and my sunflower seed sign, I imported the pumpkin graphic into Microsoft Publisher, created a page size the exact size (25″x37″) of my salvaged wood then stretched the graphic to take up the full area.
From Microsoft Publisher, it’s just a matter of printing out the sign, trimming the pages and taping them back together. I now have a full size pattern.
The taped together pumpkin fits perfectly over the sign, almost like I had planned it. 🙂
Normally I’ll transfer the entire sign and then start painting. For this project I wanted to do some of the background colors first so I started by just transferring the major color breaks. Check out the chalk signs for an inexpensive transferring technique.
Time to start painting. These were the colors I used. You don’t have to match the colors exactly, try to just use what you have. A couple of oranges, a few greens, black, white, tan, light blue, brown and a couple shades of yellow.
Use the graphic as a guide to start painting.
Again, I didn’t transfer the entire image at one time, just where I needed to paint background colors. I’m doing this one in pieces.
Once your background colors are dry, transfer as many lines of the pumpkin and the leaves as you will need to be your guide. If you’re good at freehand, you may not need to transfer any.
For the sky, pumpkin and leaves I started by painting a base color, (yellow for the pumpkin) then added oranges and brown while the yellow was still wet. Keep layering and blending until you get the image you want.
The same goes for the leaves…start with a base color and add your layers while the leaf is still wet.
Transfer the lettering onto a light background by scribbling on the back with pencil, taping the pattern in place and tracing the lettering with pen.
Do the same technique on a dark background (just like the chalkboard signs) replacing the pencil with chalk.
I modified the original seed packet just a bit, I thought the original artist got a little carried away with the little pumpkins so I just got rid of them.
I’m not quite finished with summer, I have a few more beach days in my future…but on this sweltering hot and humid 95 degree day I’m already thinking of fall.
Stay inspired and have a great weekend.
Shared at DIY Salvaged Junk, Metamorphosis Monday,
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Beautiful! Yours looks better than the original…getting rid of the little pumpkins was a good call! Hmmm, I feeling a wood sign in my future. Lol. Thanks for sharing a great tutorial.
I looked up Card Seed Co and there is tons of inspiration out there. I can definitely see another seed packet in my future.
Awesome project!