Hand-Painted French Kitchen Sign...SO EASY! | i should be mopping the floor
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Hand-Painted French Kitchen Sign...SO EASY!

I originally created this as a guest post over at Hani's Craftionary. Would love to share it with you as well!

I've got a trick to show you to transfer any saying from plain old printer paper to wood.
{And how to "fancy" it up with sandpaper & love}.
You could also use vinyl for this, but probably couldn't rough it up as much!


I started with an old piece of wood...thinking it was from a shorter fence by the nail-markings.

I painted it with a lovely shade of "Bimini Blue" in an acrylic paint.


To create my "wordy fun", I measured the sign and created a document in that size in Photoshop Elements. I tile printed it to keep my dimensions in tact. 
{You could easily do this in any word-processing document...just keep in mind the dimensions of your sign and print as many sheets as you'll need to cover it!}

BTW, this says "The French Market", I used Google's Translate to make sure I had it right (apparently four years of French class waaaaaay back in high school got me nowhere. C'est fou.)


 After printing & trimming the edges, I used painter's tape to adhere it to my sign.
 
And then...{my little trick from my college days}, trace your words with a fine tipped pen. Press fairly hard so you can make an indention into the wood through the paper. 

Whoops...I had to leave off the fancy French doo-hickey. Size-wise, I wanted the tall letters to not be too high on the sign.
 
After you've pulled off your paper, you'll see the grooves your pen left. 

For an extra-measure {and because my 30-something-year-old eyes aren't what they used to be}, I outline the letters with a pencil directly on the wood. 

Then I fill in my letters with plain black acrylic paint. The grooves from the pen help the paint stay within the letter's perimeters. (You can see that some of my paint was pulled off by the tape...that's fine since I messed her up with some sand paper later!)

After the letters were completely dry, I went a little crazy with the palm sander. 

My husband drilled three holes in the back for hanging it.

 And there she is!

(Although a wee-bit crooked in this photo), this is where she went in my breakfast area.
~The French Market~












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18 comments:

  1. I have a sign that I really wanted to do something (for my French-inspired kitchen!) with to bring it up to date. Your color and tutorial is awesome. Thank you!

    Tanya :)

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  2. Your sign is great! I made one this way too, it's so easy!

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  3. Wow this is darling! And it really is easy, I could do it! I've been wanting a Cafe type of sign over my pantry door and I think I might attempt it now. Thanks for the inspiration! :)

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  4. This is absolutely ADORABLE!! Love the effect after you sanded!! Hope you can link this up at my brand new party Trendy Tuesday!! http://www.sweetlittlegals.com

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  5. Very cute, will definitely have to try this. Thank you for sharing!

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  6. Cute sign and great tutorial. Thank you for sharing!

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  7. Fabulous!! Gonna try it tomorrow since I have no fancy dancy machine!!;)

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  8. I love this sign. Thank you so much for sharing your technique!

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  9. LOVE it!! I NEED one :)
    Have a great weekend!
    Meegan

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  10. Thank you for the tutorial! I've always wanted to create my own signs but didn't want to invest in stencils, etc. I have an idea for a sign for my rose garden. Robyn

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  11. Your sign looks A-mazing! Love it.. I am featuring your dollar store organization on my blog at http://pinkapotamus.blogspot.com
    xoxo
    Amie @ Pinkapotamus

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  12. I use an inkless ballpoint as a scoring tool! So many uses!

    Come visit us at www.thesitsgirls.com!

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  13. This sign says of French market. Not the French market. I looked it up before I made mine. Very pretty though.

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    1. Du is actually a contraction of the words "of" and "the". So, technically, it says "of the french market"...we can just conclude that everything in my kitchen is "of the French market"...LOL! Thanks for stopping by.

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  14. Which font are you using here? It is perfect for signage! Thank you for sharing.

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  15. I just want to give you a big hug! I'm really having trouble with my 58 year old eyes and painting my words. Between contacts, astigmatism, and reading glasses, I still don't see real sharp and sometimes even double. I think tracing and pressing down hard to leave a groove may be just what a need to help keep my lines straight. I've been trying to,figure out a way to see my work better while painting but haven't come up,with anything. Thanks again! Hope,this does the job.

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