French Style "Cafe" Sign
This crafting project is quick and
easy and a cute, cute, cute addition to your kitchen (or any other room in your
home!) All of the materials you’ll need can be purchased at your local
crafting or discount retailer store. You can probably find many--or
all--of the materials around your house.
Materials:
A
piece of wood in your choice of size. For the “Cafe” sign, a 16-inch
board was used.
acrylic crafting paint
crafting wire
small nails
stencils
(optional)
old rags
Tools
hammer
Let’s
get started:
1)
Choose the paint colors for your sign. You will need one color of paint
for your “base” coat (the bottom layer of the sign) and as many other
colors for the lettering and design as you choose. Quick tip: To keep
this project simple and quick only two colors, red and white, were used and
white was chosen as the “base” color.
2)
To complete the “base” of your sign choose the base color. I used
white with varying shadings and painting techniques (like the “weathered”
finish with the checkerboard pattern). Check out your local crafting
stores for a wide variety of stencil options that you could also use to
complete a “base”. Let the base coat dry.
To
achieve the “weathered” look of this sign I first painted the entire board
with white crating paint, wiped it with a slightly wet rag, and then
repeated. Then apply the stencil (or freehand). Let this
“base”coat dry completely.
3)
Next you will be painting your wording on the sign. Again, I just
free handed the lettering, but lettering stencils are available. A tip
on lettering: Look through magazines at story titles for type settings
you like and try to duplicate it. You really can’t go wrong with this
part of the craft because you want the sign to look old and weathered. Just
let your creativity guide you!
Let
the sign dry.
4)
To prepare the sign to be able to be mounted you will use the small
nails, crafting wire and a hammer. Turn the sign over and place a pen
mark where you will place the nails.
5)
Select the length of wire you want to use to hang the sign. I
didn’t want the wire to show after I mounted my sign on the wall, so I
stretched the wire taunt across the back before I hammered in my nails.
I used a 26 gauge crafting wire because I already had it handy with my
crafting supplies. To ensure that it was strong enough to hold my sign I
doubled the wire over to increase the thickness. You local crafting
store should have several wire gauges available.
6)
Take your nail and wrap the crafting wire around it 4 to 5 times. Place
the nail on your marked spot and hammer it in. Repeat on the other side.
And that’s it! Choose to display the completed craft in heavily
trafficked areas of you home so everyone can remark on your beautiful sign.
And be prepared to answer “Where did you get that adorable sign?”
The
options with this project are unlimited. Make them as gifts for friends
and family-personalizing them for each individual. These signs are so
easy to make-and so inexpensive-you may even want to make 2 or 3 for
yourself.
IDEAS AND SUGGESTIONS:
Garden
theme signs
Bathroom
theme signs with phrases
such as “BATH 5 cents” etc...
Kitchen
theme signs such as “Daily Special”
Instead
of using nails to secure the wire to the sign, get creative and purchase
inexpensive hooks from a hardware store and create a “hanging” style sign.
Hang this sign above your house plants!
© Rubyglen.com
2003
