BELIEVE You Can Make This Sign Knockoff

Sometimes when I am looking for decorating inspiration I like to look through some store ads and websites.  I love getting Pottery Barn and Pier 1 ads in the mail.  Every once in  a while I will splurge and buy something but most of the time I like to challenge myself to recreating it instead.  That’s what I did with my last sign of the week.  I was looking through one of these ads and saw a really cute sign.  I lost the ad but here is a picture of it from the store website:

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And then I thought you know what? I BELIEVE I can make that sign.  (pun intended, haha!)  So I set out to do just that.

First I got myself some wooden letters at a craft store:

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I didn’t have time to track down the right size tree so I just used a regular “I” and embellished it with some little wooden stars I had on hand.  Doesn’t everyone have little wooden stars on hand?!

Here are a few more handy tools I used.  A chevron stencil and some little dobbing sponges:

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And then you start painting.  Get your base colors on first, let them dry and then paint or stencil on your embellishments.

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Once my letters were finished I dug through my board pile (doesn’t everyone have a board pile?!)  and found one the right size.  To give it a weathered look I did a two step process.  First I stained it using steeling wool I had soaked in regular vinegar for a couple days.  This gave the wood a nice dark rich tone.  To “grey” it up a bit I took some white paint and added a bunch of water to thin it out quite a bit.  Then I brushed it on and went after it with a rag to wipe the excess off – basically a white wash effect.

For the border I ripped down a 1×4 –  I needed it to be a specific height to stand out from the board –  painted them white and then nailed them onto the board.   If this seems like too much work you can always skip the border all together or just paint one on your board.

So here she is all finished:

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Not too bad for a knock off.IMG_1756[1]

And the best part is the store bought one was $40 and I made mine for around $10. I do BELIEVE that is a good deal. Seriously I could keep these puns up all day.

I hope you have enjoyed my Christmas sign week and maybe you’ve got some inspiration to make a sign of your own.  I BELIEVE you can do it.  OK.  I really have to stop that now.

 

4 Comments

  1. Jeanne

    I BELIEVE I like yours better than the store bought one. You are so creative Heather!
    You need to make more and sell them!

  2. Matthew Almen

    It’s so cool how you make things like this. I think one day people will be looking through your catalog! 🙂

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