Candy Cane Vintage Style Signs on Reclaimed Doors

Candy Cane Vintage Style Signs on Reclaimed Doors

Hello again friends.  Today I’m back to my to do pile and we’re working with the large bottom sections on these old doors.

If you can remember back that far, almost 2 years ago I used the top part of the doors to paint a half dozen butterflies.  These doors are the perfect canvas as they come with their own built in frame.

I’ve had the bottom parts of these doors sitting around ever since my butterfly obsession.  The doors will make the perfect backdrop for my new Candy Cane Christmas sign projects.  

You can see why these doors were rescued from a dump pile.  They’re not in the greatest of shape.

 

Before beginning, I still had to fix the hole where the doorknob would have gone and knock off any visibly peeling and cracking  paint.

To fill the hole, I used wood glue to affix a chunk of wood between the outer pieces of wood where the lockset would have sat.  I then used a small dowel to fill the remainder of the hole.

Decide on your artwork.  Choose a design that is already floating around on the internet or design your own.

I have an entire Pinterest board dedicated to vintage style signs to get those ideas flowing.  The above sign was originally sold at Bed Bath and Beyond but is currently no longer available.

The second design I wanted to create was this Santa’s Workshop sign  which is still sold on Amazon, though the largest sign they offer is only 12″x 18″.  Mine is sofa worthy at 27″ x  45″.

Here I’ve imported the sign into my  graphics app and stretched the print to fit on my reclaimed door.  I use Publisher even though it’s not available currently but I’ve also used  Block Poster.

This poster will print out on 10 sheets of paper.

 

Print out your design and tape back together.

Coat the back of your poster with chalk, pencil, charcoal or pastels.

I have decided to create  chalkboard style signs so I’ve painted both doors with black chalk paint.  Since I’m using black as my background, I’m using a light colored pastel to cover the back of my print.

If I had kept the original light colored background, I would have used the charcoal or pencil.

Tape your poster in place on top of your door and use a pen to outline the design.  All that smudgy pastel will wipe away in the final product.

Now it’s just a matter of filling in your design.  Because I’m doing a chalkboard style, this color palette is limited to just white and black.

Second sign is outlined and ready for paint.

If you’re interested, to make a candy cane, paint one solid white line as wide as you’d like your cane.  If a little of the black shows through, that’s great, don’t paint a second coat.

Paint on your candy stripes with a slight bend as if the color is going around the cane. 

The paint is still wet where the color is darker black above.

Once your stripes have dried, water down a drop or two of black paint.  With the watered down paint, paint a  stroke of paint on both sides of your candy cane.  If the paint goes on too dark, add more water.  If you’d like a darker shadow, repeat the process. 

Try not to get this black shadow on the white.  It doesn’t matter if you get the watered down black on the black background, it’s still just black. 

With a dry brush, paint a white line along the top of the candy cane.  It can be slightly off center.  With the same brush slightly smudge it along the way.

The white on the top line will come across as whiter than the base color of the candy cane since you  gave the base white color only one coat of paint.

If you have a lighter background  (just about any color other than black ), use a slightly darker color than your background color to paint a shadow.  It really gives the illusion of a 3D candy cane.

There wasn’t much to the original border of the Santa’s Workshop sign so I added the candy canes and more snowflakes.  Always feel free to do your own thing.

I changed up the border on this sign as well.  The original border was just a red line.

I added a semi curly ribbon and peppermints in the corners.

Peppermint and Sugars sign is now Peppermint and Sweets.  I may have copied but now I’ve made it my own.

This is my own Candy Cane sign that I have hanging in my house. 

The candy cane cane is from 2018.

To get more inspiration, make sure you check out my Pinterest Page, Vintage Style Signs.

As always, stay inspired.  Are you ready to try your hand at painting a candy cane sign?