4F Craftin’: Spring’s New Life – A Simple 3-D Wooden Sign
I will show you how to make a simple 3-D wooden sign!
Once I finished decorating the little blue table in the dining room for spring, the waterski that was next to it was feeling a little heavy. Do you remember it from the before picture?
I love our vintage waterski… picked it up at a garage sale when we first moved into our house on the lake. So I didn’t want to give it up altogether – I made some plans for a better display place for it than in the dining room.
So, what to do in that space? How about a wooden sign? Originally I was thinking of something hand-painted on an old rustic board so I went hunting for one. No luck – the only ones we had were outside and sooooooaking wet from the pouring rain. And since patience isn’t exactly a virtue I possess, I decided to make do with whatever I could find at home. I didn’t want to buy anything new. So this is what I came up with, a 3-D wooden sign.
I found an old piece of wainscoting that we had used in our main bathroom renovation :
Next I gave it a couple of coats of springy green paint. I actually concocted this colour out of a few paint colours I had on hand so that it would work well with the napkin bunting and the watering can on the table beside it. If you are mixing your own colour make sure to MAKE ENOUGH (luckily I did) because you will never be able to make the exact colour again.
After that I hemmed and hawed about how to paint my lettering. While searching my craft room for some stencil letters…. I happened upon my collection of 3D letters. I knew I wanted the sign to read “NEW LIFE” and I found E, F, and I in my craft supplies. I just needed an “L”.
In the garage I found some scrap pieces of pine molding leftover from the laundry room paneling and hot glued these together to create an “L” – the picture to the left is the “L” after it was painted.
Next I found an old intricate frame I had been hoarding and placed it above the 3D letters. It would become the home for the “NEW” part of “NEW LIFE”.
I loved the 3-D effect of the letters!
Now how to make the wooden sign a little more interesting? You saw above that I simply painted the “L” with a deep turquoise colour. Next I wrapped the “I” in a coordinating yarn…
Then I Mod Podged some fabric onto the “F”.
And finally I simply painted the “E” a fresh citron yellow.
Now onto the “NEW” frame.
I spray painted the old brass frame a crisp white, created a beautiful NEW sign using PicMonkey, printed it and Mod Podged it onto some cardboard. Done!
Now after hot gluing and gorilla gluing (the heavier pieces) onto my wainscotting, the sign was complete! Here is a close up of the finished sign:
Making the sign was fairly quick and easy and I am really thrilled with how it turned out. It is difficult to get the same effect in photos, but in real life the 3-D aspect makes it really dramatic and fun. I love it!! I think I might keep a sign in this spot always and make different ones seasonally…. so perhaps more of these tutorials to come:)
Please feel free to say hello if you drop by – I love comments and will reply to each one:) And remember, my housie friends, HOME wasn’t built in a day. Enjoy the journey!
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At my favourite Housie Parties including
This is amazing! Yes I’m seeing it almost 5 years later but am going to do my
Best to make this. Just fantastic!!
This is darling! I love the colors– perfect for spring, as it the saying. Pinned!
Thanks Emily! And thanks for stopping by!
Super cute sign! I love the 3D effect you did too. I had to laugh about the mixing paint colors. Unfortunately, I have made too little and had to start over completely because I ran out of paint. Oops.
I have done that as well Shannah… hence the warning for others! It is quite the learning experience when you have to start all over and repaint something from the beginning:) Thanks for stopping by!!
Krista
Looks so bright and cheery I love it. I’ve also been looking for an aged wooden board to make a sign but haven’t found one yet. I love the board and batten look so maybe I’ll try that.
Thanks Danielle! It does make me feel cheery to have all these bright spring colours around again… I think I might try an old plank sign for the fall? Might fit well with fall colours? Thanks for coming by and for your comment:)
Krista