DIY Name Sign

So over the weekend Aaron was gone working, so it was just me & Gavin man holding down the fort.

I had time on my hands, and decided to take a trip to Michaels.

The photo above is the end result.

I've been seeing so many of these cute name signs, and decided to finally make one for us! 

:)

Here's how I made it!

Supplies You Need: 

(I got everything from Michaels)

Unfinished Wood Sign

Acrylic paint colors- distressed color, top layer color, and your font colors

Sand paper

Paint brushes

Stencils & dabber

Burlap flower & hot glue gun

How I Did It:

1. I lightly sanded down the wood sign. I rounded off the corners so they weren't so sharp and clean cut. I wanted to give it a distressed look, so I didn't want perfect edges. I roughed it up a bit.

(As you can tell my table cover is an old diaper box... I'm so fancy) 

2. I used a dark brown acrylic paint and did just one coat. This is the color that will show through when you distress. As you can see, I didn't cover it completely, you'll be painting over it with your top coat anyway, so it doesn't need to be perfectly covered.  Let dry.

3. Next I did my top coat. I did one quick layer- and I made sure to do it thin enough in some areas that the dark color showed through, this way I would have less sanding/distressing to do when I was done. Let dry.

4. This is when I forgot to keep taking pictures- I was trying to hurry and finish it before Gavin woke up from his nap...oops! BUT, next was the stenciling.  I used my gray color and stenciled "Arfstrom" and "2013" in the same color. Then I used the same color I used for my distressing color (the dark brown), for the "est.". I wasn't too careful about not letting the paint run or smear at all from stenciling- since I was going for the distressed look I knew having imperfect letters was only fitting :) 

5. Once the stenciling was dry, I used my paint brush and the top coat color (the cream) and "dry brushed" it all over- on top of the stenciling. 

For dry brushing- I put a TINY bit of paint on my brush, then wiped my brush off on a dry paper towel. You'd think this wipes off all of the paint- it really doesn't! You want your paint brush to look like it doesn't have any wet paint on it (don't worry- you'll be surprised how much is actually still on there). Then I took the brush and wiped (with the wood grain) all over the top of the sign. The tiny amount of paint left in your paint brush will leave your letters looking perfectly distressed. I dry brushed over it a few times until it was as distressed as I wanted it to look.

6. Last but not least- I roughed it up again. I used sand paper and sanded all of the sides of the sign, as well as the corners (I sanded those more than anything) and then went over some areas on the front/top of the sign. Basically I just sanded until I was happy with how distressed it looked.

7. I guess I lied, last but not least was the burlap flower. I bought this already made from Michaels. I used my hot glue gun and (used quite a bit of glue) and stuck it on there. :) 

Simple as that!