hand painted sign round #1

Good afternoon! It's been a busy boxed mac and cheese week here at the Old Blue Silo studio with the kitchen reveal going on, a few painting projects and learning on how to improve my graphic skills. Not to mention, laundry, cleaning, watering plants (it finally rained today), weeding and helping out a friend with her project.

A while back, I was junking/antiquing with my husband at one of my favorite stores, Green Oak Antiques. I typically like to rummage through the weathered junk they have outside. My husband really didn't get it at first but now I catch him staring at all the goodies they have out there. He has even picked up an old oil can for his office all on his own! That excites me. I always knew I married a keeper.

While I was rummaging through all the outdoor, weathered goodies, I came across these three pieces of wood attached together. 



I had no clue what I was going to do with this piece but I knew I had to have it! We brought it home and it sat in our shop for quite a while. I was going to use it for layering underneath a laundry sign that I had but I felt like this piece was just screaming 'blank canvas'...

I've been wanting to make some of the rustic painted signs you see all over the place. You know, those ones you look at, read the $18 price tag and say "Yeah, I can make that" but then you never do? I've been reading up on all kinds of techniques on how to transfer letters to wood. I was even going to invest in a Silhouette but after I saw the prices, I held myself back. I need to sell a lot of things at the consignment store before I'll be purchasing one of those.

I borrowed my sister in law's Cricut but couldn't get it to do what I wanted to do. I don't think the vinyl I purchased for stenciling was the right size. I read other techniques like printing out your letters and using chalk, graphite and a sharpie to transfer them onto the wood. I wasn't in the mood for sizing all the letters correctly and my printer hasn't been working lately. I really need to put that on my shopping list too. That means I need to sell even more stuff at the consignment shop.

So, I decided I was just going to wing it and  free hand my lettering onto the boards. I grabbed my Folk Art acrylic paint, a few brushes and went to town.

The saying I decided to use was

"You say born in a barn like it's a bad thing"

I have seen this quote in several places. I am not sure where it originated from so if you know, do tell.

This quote has a lot of meaning behind it and I may be partial to it because well, I live in what looks like a barn. If you grew up on a farm, you would completely understand this quote. I spent most of my childhood running around our barn, finding new hiding places from my brother, chasing kittens, swinging from the hay loft, petting the horses and helping dad do chores. There weren't ipads,Wii games, Netflix, computers and everything else kids are spoiled with today. We used are imaginations and what we could find out in the barn. We didn't text our friends, we talked to the animals and when we wanted someone to play with, we rode our bikes down to see the neighbor kids. Sure, I had toys like Polly Pockets, but if you ask my mom, I looked at them on the shelf more than I played with them. I was never deprived by any means!

So yes, I would rather be raised in a barn over any place any day. Granted, I could go in the house to eat, bathe and sleep at night. There actually was a kid in my class who really literally did live in a barn. With animals. It was odd. Guess you 'gotta' do what you 'gotta' do but hat is not what I mean at all by being raised in a barn.

So anyways, back to the sign. I did all the letters in white paint with a curved brush, then I outlined them with a smaller brush. I drew a barn instead of saying "barn" because I thought that was pretty whimsy.



It turned out "ok".... you're probably thinking I wasted a perfectly good piece of weathered wood. I know, I kind of think that myself. The craftsmanship could be a lot better with the lettering but hey, rustic is "in" right? That's rustic right there.

I decided to grunge the sign up with the antique glaze I mentioned in my post about how I painted and distressed that fruit crate.

I used the same application as the crate but that old wood was picking up way to much.

I decided to "dry" brush the glaze on. If you don't know what that technique is, it means dipping the tip of your brush in your glaze or paint then wiping most of it off with a paper towel. You then use long, wispy strokes to apply a little color.

I then sanded the surface abut to rough up the shiny paint.

I like the sign a lot better a little more distressed. The antique white was a little to bright for that old wood.

So now, I just need to figure out where to put this sign. I think it's  little too "rustic" for the house but I think it would be cute out in our shop or maybe hung on the porch.

What do you think?

I learned quite a bit from this project.

I probably won't be free handing letters any time soon............

Thanks for checking out my sign project and if you missed it yesterday, be sure to check out the post on my kitchen reveal.