Inside: Want a little Christmas joy? These cute signs are easy to make and add a pop of color to your favorite Christmas displays.
Signs of Joy
I love these little signs. A gorgeous pop of color which works great on a mantle, shelf, or Christmas tablescape. We actually made these for our Etsy shop, but I think they make a fun and easy Christmas craft.
We have two versions–a white with red word and a red with white word. Also, one has uppercase letters and the other lowercase.
Both versions have two coats of paint because we love that distressed look which comes from sanding down to the first coat of paint–in this case we used black chalk paint under the white with red word and a dark brown chalk paint under the red. We love the effect!
Here’s how we did it.
You Will Need:
–blocks of wood (I used blocks approximately 1 x 3 X 6, but you can use a 2 x 4)
–chalk paint in red, off white, dark brown, and black
–letter stencils, 1.5 inch
–medium 120 sandpaper
–paint brush
–stencil brush
–stencil or frog tape
–toothpick
–Mod Podge (optional)
–polyacrylic spray (optional)
Directions
- Paint the block of wood with either the brown or black chalk paint for the undercoat and allow to dry.
- Paint the block with either the red paint over the brown or the white paint over the black.
- Stencil the letters, one by one, allowing them to dry before moving on to the next letter. (Note: If you are new to stenciling, this short tutorial on YouTube will help you stencil without the paint bleeding around the letters. Highly recommended!)
- Distress the edges of the block of wood and slightly on the surface with the sandpaper, sanding down to the first coat.
- If doing the red with white letters version, use a toothpick to put small dots to look like snow.
- After the paint is dry, spray with polyacrylic spray if desired to seal the project.
Double the Sign
These signs also carry a message on the other side. We went with another short word, noel, in both the upper and lower case. Here’s how they turned out:
And the other version:
