Sign tutorial

This weather has been fantastic.  I have been outside spray painting something every day this week.  I LOVE IT!!!   I promised I would do a mini tutorial for you, so here it is. 



I have wanted an "Old sign"  over my kitchen sink as a window treatment for a while now but have not been lucky enough to find one.  So I set out to make one.  V and Co. has a great tutorial HERE of how to recreate these signs.  So starting with that info, I went ahead and tweaked it a little.

First thing, my sweet hubby brought home some old wood.  After picking the perfect piece, I cut it to a size to fit the window.  Mine measures about 9 1/2" X 50". 

My wood was a really great old Grey color so I didn't want to mess with the color to much.  I did dry brush some thin white paint over the front of the wood.

Then I cut my design out of vinyl using my Cricut Machine (I didn't get any pics of this process sorry, you gotta use your imagination). 

Next, using the NEGATIVE part of your image, decide on your placement and adhere the vinyl to the front of the wood.

Next, using the vinyl as a stencil, I brushed on a dark brown for the wording (I used a metallic vinyl which is why there is such a bad glare in the photo)

Once the paint is dry peel off the vinyl.  Then, using the stencil brush and the same dark brown paint, I added some "distressing".  I just "dirtied it up" where ever it would be dirty or worn, around the edges and in the cracks of the wood.  When I got the paint where I like it I took it outside and started to sand it.  I didn't want to lose the natural Grey weathering on the wood so I didn't sand very hard.  Just enough to take off the top couple of paint layers.

I continued to sand and add paint until I got the look that I wanted.  That is it!  This was a very simple project and I love the results.  To hang it I just screwed through the wood right into the wall (my husband will love that :)  Here are the final pictures of it all hung up.  Sorry about the bad lighting :( The dark areas are where I added the brown paint then sanded it off a little. I like how it brings out the detail of the wood.

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you like it.  I love it, and by the way it says  'the house of chocolate' hee hee Love it!  It makes me smile every time I go in there.