Crafty people- how would I do this?

[Bernadine]

I want to make a welcome sign like this, but horizontal, for my front porch.  Should I get individual letter stencils?  I'm worried if I get individual stencils, I won't space them evenly.

[VeryViolet]

Etsy

[VeryViolet]

Really though could you use stickers? So paint the wood black and let it dry, place the stickers on and paint it cream, peel off the stickers while the paint is still wet, and sign.

[Bernadine]

Apr 10, 2015 7:52:06 GMT -5 VeryViolet said:

Etsy

Lol, right?  They're so expensive though, because I want a big sign.

[lemons]

Check ebay and amazon first. They may have one you like for about the same cost as all of your supplies.

Otherwise you could get stencils and practice on cardboard until you have the spacing like you want it. Tape the letters together and then paint your wood.

[lilac05]

I think you could buy individual letters & do the spacing yourself, there's not much to worry about. If you're not comfortable doing that, you can buy the whole word as a stencil. I googled "welcome stencil" and found many options.

[Bernadine]

Apr 10, 2015 7:53:33 GMT -5 VeryViolet said:

Really though could you use stickers? So paint the wood black and let it dry, place the stickers on and paint it cream, peel off the stickers while the paint is still wet, and sign.

I actually want to do plain wood with white letters, but maybe I could use stickers to get them in the right place, then trace, then remove and paint.

[floridakat]

I would print the letters out in the font/size that you want them. On the back of the paper, take a pencil and shade over all the letters pretty heavily, making sure to go outside the edges. Then turn the paper over, put in on the board where you want the letters to be, and trace them with your pencil. You should end up with a faint outline of your letters that you can then paint in.

[ladystardust]

I would also draw a faint, level baseline to make sure the letters aren't tilted or anything. I like the printing and tracing so I have more control over font and size.

[speckledfrog]

I would also print the letters. Cut them out, put the on the board, fiddle with spacing, trace and paint. Done.


ETA: If you don't have a great eye for spacing, you can draw a chalk line down the middle of the board, fold your letters in half to have a mid-line, and then line up the fold with the chalk line.    

[thebuddhagouda]

Just make sure you can paint straight lines fairly well or you'll wind up with bubble letters. I'd probably still go the stencil route, but you can make your own stencils out of heavy card stock if you'll only be using them once. Just play with the spacing before you actually paint.

[WOT?*]

I did something similar for our address when I needed something during the foster licensing process and the painters lost our house numbers. Three years later...

I used adhesive vinyl numbers (I used the school's die-cutter but if you have a friend with a Silhouette or Cricut that actually works you can have a wide choice of fonts.  You can buy adhesive vinyl sheets in singles at Michael's but I got mine in a roll off Amazon for a different purpose and used left overs.)

I painted the surface of the board the color I wanted the numbers (the color of our house trim, or in this case, the black color), let it dry, placed the numbers where I wanted them, painted over the "numbers color" in the house color (or in this case the beige), let it dry slightly, removed the vinyl numbers and touched up any spots that needed it. (I also outlined my numbers in black to further define them but that's a step you won't need to take in this case.)