What better way to make someone feel welcome and comfortable in your home than having a cute “Welcome to our Home” sign in your entry way? Right? Well…if you have a piece of wood, a cutting machine of some kind (mine is a Cricut), stencil vinyl, paint and some cute greenery…you can make a sign of your own. Here’s how!!!
Items you will need:
- 11″ x 24″ x 1″ piece of wood (sanded smooth)
- “Welcome to our Home” stencil vinyl made with your cutting machine
- Transfer paper
- Paint or stain for your board
- Sand paper or sanding block
- Baby wipe or paint brush
- Paint for your lettering
- Make up sponge for lettering
- Small wreath or greenery to make your own
- Floral wire
- Hot glue
- Quick Hanging Wall Hook
Make sure your board is smooth and ready to be stained or painted. For my base coat, I used Apple Barrel Burnt Umber acrylic paint and applied it with a baby wipe. That gives it a look of staining without the smell and drying time that stain takes. Once that was dry, I dry brushed a layer of Ivory Waverly Chalk Paint over that and let it dry overnight. In the morning, I took my board outside and sanded it to bring out some of the darker Burnt Umber paint from the base coat to give it a rustic look.
Next, designing your stencil for your sign. I use Cricut Design Studio which is the software that goes with my Cricut cutting machine. Once you get the design you want, I use Oramask Stencil Film 813 that I order off of Amazon. Once you get your image cut out, you remove all the lettering making sure you leave all of the small inside parts of each letter behind such as with the letter “e” it’s important to have that little half circle on there or you wouldn’t be able to tell it’s an “e.”
Once that’s done, you will apply your transfer paper on top of the stencil film. You can use a credit card to smooth it down getting all of the wrinkles out. Then lift off the transfer paper and the stencil film should stick to it. Again, make sure all of the letters and little inside pieces of letters are attached to the transfer paper. Place it on the board and again use your credit card to smooth out the wrinkles. Lift off the transfer paper and the stencil film should adhere to your board. If all of this sounds too overwhelming or if you do not own a cutting machine, you can find tons of people on Etsy or other sites that will do all of this part for you.
Now you’re ready to paint the letters!! I chose the color Ink Waverly Chalk Paint for my letters. Using the make up sponge to apply your paint, dab or spounce the paint using the larger end of the sponge. Dabbing or spouncing will help eliminate the chance of bleeding under the stencil. Make sure not to use a lot of paint on your sponge, less is better and you can always do a second coat if you feel it’s necessary.
After you’ve got the coverage you’re happy with, lift off the stencil film carefully making sure not to get any paint from the stencil on the board. I like to lift my stencil off while the paint is still wet to eliminate any chance of the paint peeling off with the stencil. After you remove the majority of the stencil, you’ll notice all those tiny little inside parts of the letter we talked about earlier. Those will all need to be removed as well. I used my Cricut weeding tool to remove them, but you can easily use tweezers, a straight pin, or anything with a sharp end.
And there you have it…doesn’t it look great!!
If you’ll notice, there is a space left open where the “O” in HOME should be. I had a cute little greenery candle ring that I thought I would use for the “O”, but it seemed a little too big for that spot. So…I got into my greenery stash and found a piece of lamb’s ear garland that I had left over from another project. I cut off a piece I felt would be the right size for a little wreath and used floral wire to attach it together. I cut a few pieces of the lamb’s ear off of the remaining piece of garland and hot glued them into the areas I felt could use a little more to make the wreath look fuller. I think it turned out perfect.
As far as attaching the wreath to the sign, I didn’t want to make this permanent. I thought it would be great to change it out from season to season. So…I used one of these Quick Hanging Wall Hooks that just pushes right into the board. No tools needed and it worked perfectly. I purchased these awesome hooks on Amazon as well.
And there you have it…one super cute sign that’s sure to make your guests feel welcome and comfortable in your home. If you’re not following me on this blog, please subscribe today. All you need to do is provide your email address and you will be notified of any new posts on my blog to help you transform your house into a home you love.
Blessings,
Dina
