Hey friends!

Hope you all had a great weekend!  Ours was beautiful here!

Many of you have seen Ashley’s Reclaimed Wood Wall Art she did for above her couch a while back.  I LOVE hers.  In fact, every time I go to her house it makes me want to change the art above my couch as well!

So… I came up with this!

Here is how I made it!

I started with wood from Lowe’s.  This is the great part…

I went ahead and bought 8′ pieces and cut them in half to save money. I used furring strips for mine.  You can have Lowe’s or HD cut yours in half for you if you don’t have a saw.  Or, you can also use a super cheap hand saw like THIS one.  It’s really easy to cut this type of wood with a hand saw.

2 – 1×2″ furring strips

2-1×3″ furring strips

2- 1×4″ furring strips

My cost for wood was under $15!

Once mine were cut I laid them out like this…

Then I used 1/4″x 3′ birch project sticks to attach all the wood together.  These can be found with the other birch boards and they were really cheap… Like $1.50 a piece.

I marked where I would lay my stick and then added a little Gorilla Wood Glue!

Then I nailed my sticks to the boards like this.  If you don’t have a nailer you can also use wood screws!  Just pre-drill your holes and attach the screw through all the boards.

Next, I flipped it over and gave it a coat of my very fav…

Here it is drying…

Next for the fun part!

I used my Silhouette machine and Contact paper to make my stencils.  You can also buy your own stencils at a craft store or print your own letters and use a craft knife to cut them out with contact paper.

The font I used is called Arial Black.

I cut my L, V and E.  I also used a heart shape that came with a set of 9 hearts on Silhouette Software.

You can see a detailed post on cutting Contact paper with the Silhouette HERE.

 I lined my letters up first to make sure I liked it…

Then I put the outsides of the letters on to be my stencil.  I used some acrylic cream and coral paint to add my letters.

My final step before I hung it up was to shanty it up a bit!  I used an 80 grit sanding block to lightly distress each letter.  I LOVE the results…

To hang it I had to get the hubby’s help!  I just used 2 1/2″ drywall screws straight through the sign into the studs of the wall.  I used three screws on the sign and it is super sturdy!

Want to see it up on the wall??

What do you think???

I hope you LOVE it 😉 No pun intended….

If you do, I would love for you to share the LOVE and Pin it like crazy below! Oh I could go on and on 😀

Thanks so much!

~Whitney

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63 Comments

  1. Looks good. @valerie – I have a Cricut as well. You need software to cut any font you want (software is called SCAL), but the newest version does not support Cricut anymore. If you want the software that DOES support cricut email me at stephenbenham @ hotmail . com. Without it, you could use a font cartridge and cut the letters just the same.

    1. Hi there 🙂 I am getting ready to make this sign this weekend. I was reading the comments and saw yours about software for the Cricut. I have a new cricut machine I got last year. I would LOVE to have access to some software to use with it. I was interested in your comment mentioning the possibility that their is some software out there that I could still access for my Cricut….maybe I am reading in to this too much and its just wishful thinking. I am not a total cricut genius so forgive me if my question is silly 🙂 Thanks for your time in reading this!! Have a great day!

      1. Hello Kristin. Feel free to email me at stephenbenham @ hotmail . com and I can give you a hand with this!

  2. LOVE it!! I can’t get enough of signs, letters, or anything to do with type…
    as a graphic designer, I think it might be in my blood!!

  3. Love the idea…instead of the birch sticks you may want to grab a couple of the big paint sticks at the paint counter. They are free and are pretty sturdy for lots of jobs. Just a thought…saves another 3 bucks and no one can see them from behind. You are so crafty! I have to try this!

  4. I love how this turned out!

    When I got to the steps with the Silhouette, I was lost. I have a Cricut, which I guess is old school…?

    Anyway, I’d love a tutorial for those of us without the Silhouette!

    But yes–this is great!

  5. Julie,
    I would love to see pictures as I do not have a Silhouette machine. What is DIP?
    Thanks!
    Karla

  6. This turned out great. I pinned it for future reference. I’m hoping to get a Silhouette for my bday this month…fingers crossed. Are they hard to learn how to use? I’m sure tired of cutting stencils by hand. Super job here.

  7. Yes, I LOVE It. I do a lot of painted signs myself.

    Here’s a hint for those without a Silhouette machine . . . using a photo editing program. I use DIP. Create a canvas the size of your board. (Mine are usually much smaller than this.) Find a font you LOVE, and do it on insert the text on the canvas, arrange it to fit, create an outline on the font, then make the font white. You will be left with just the outline of each letter – then ‘Print” – exact size. You can use carbon paper, or better yet – scribble the back with a pencil, then trace over it on your board.

    Then paint! I’ve made countless ones this way. Let me know If you’d like to see some pics.

    Julie