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I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! We did for sure! I am always trying to think of thrifty, unique and thoughtful gifts to make my family and friends each year. I love making custom pieces that they wouldn’t receive from anyone else. This year I decided to make my niece and nephew name signs for their room. I decided that this would be our teacher gifts this year as well, only I will use their last names!
Today I am showing you the sign I made my for niece Londyn.
I found a GREAT flickr photo site on Pinterest. It is an amazing source for letter photos. There are literally hundreds of each letter. You can see that site HERE! You simply download for FREE and print from your own printer… Pretty darn cheap and easy! I found her letters and got started on the rest.
I bought 6 4×6 frames at the Dollar Tree for a buck a piece.
I removed all the plastic and glass from the frames like this…
I gave them all a coat of my very favorite…
You can get it at Home Depot.
I used Heirloom White for the frames…
Here they are drying…
While those were drying, I started on my wood.
I used a 2×10 for my sign. This is heavy and will sit alone on a table without support. If you are wanting to hang yours on a wall, you could also use a 1×10.
I paid $4.50 for an 8ft board and made 2 signs from it.
I cut a 36″ piece and painted it Sweet Pea.
While that was drying I finished up my frames. I added the glass back into each frame and also added my new FREE letter photos. Once I attached the back I gently pulled the support piece off the back of each frame. That was quite easy to do on dollar store frames 😉
Then, I added a bit of hot glue to the corners of each frame and attached them to my new pink board.
The result…
What do you think?
I am so excited to also make these for the kiddos teachers. I am planning on staining the boards and going with a neutral frame color so they can use them anywhere.
If you are making a longer name, I would suggest going with 3×5 frames and using a 2×6 or a 2×8 as your board.
And now let’s do the math… I paid $6 for the frames, $2.50 per sign for the wood, and the pictures were free. That’s about $10 a sign if you count the spray paint… My kind of gift!
Thanks so much for stopping by! Let me know if you have any questions!
~Whitney
Can anyone tell me where they bought their wood? I can’t find the perfect piece! Thanks 🙂
I got mine at Lowe’s 😉
I made one and It turned out fantastic! Thank you!
That’s so great!! We would love to see pics if you ever have time to post it on our Facebook! Thanks so much! 😉
Great Idea…But I tried downloading the picture in it’s original form (from the flickr website) but when they were printed out the letters were too big and did not look good. I previewed the photos on iPhoto and they seemed fine but not the case when they were printed. And Ideas on what size to download so it fits in a 4×6 would be greatly appreciated????? I
After downloading them, I used a photo editing program(like Kodak or PS Elements) to resize them to 4×6 before printing. There are many free editing programs with this feature. Hope this helps! Thanks!
Hi, I downloaded my letters and then made them 4×6 on a resizing program and when I printed them they came out blurred and couldn’t even tell what they were. Any suggestions on a better free editing site? I LOVE this idea, I just can’t get my lettering to print correctly! 🙂 you can also email me if that’s easier. Bishopnursing@yahoo.com. Thank you!! -Brittany
I love love love this!!! BEAUTIFUL!!! Thank you for the idea!!!
Thanks so much Tammy!!!
I/m curious about the hot glue holding the frames. After all this time there are no issues the frames stay on the wood board nicely with just hot glue?
Hers is still perfectly in tact. If you are concerned just use something like Gorilla Glue Epoxy to hold them in place.
Thanks so much for sharing this very creative idea!! I love how you use frames mounted on the block of wood. Thinking of a word that I want to use for this…
Thanks Sally! Good luck! 🙂
How do you download them? Because I went on his Flicker site and I tried saving photo as and it won’t let me.
Go to the site, right click, choose the size you want and click it. It will open the picture and at the top left is the option to “Download the (actual) size of this photo.” Click and save it wherever you want it. 🙂
Thank you Sara!!!
how do you get the free letters
What was your spacing for in between the picture frames, and on each end? Also what was the measurements of the picture frames themselves. Like it held a 4×6 picture, but it was probably the size of a 5×7 I’m guessing. I just wanted to make sure. I’m making four and bought a 1x10x12 but didn’t want to screw up and not have enough board for each one.
Found your site from Pinterest and I am so thankful I did!!! I love this so much! Thanks for the great and cheap idea!!!!
That’s great Heather! Thank you!!
This is amazing, I love the idea!!!! Where can I find the link for the letters?
There is a link in my post! Thanks 🙂
Hi! I’ve been looking for a site for the letter shapes like this, but I went to the site and I can’t figure out how to download each letter. When I right-click on the picture, it just talks about restrictions, and will not let me save-as, or copy, or do any action. If you have any ideas, or if anyone else knows what I’m doing wrong, please let me know at Ashes1434@hotmail.com
Thank you!
Go to the site, right click, choose the size you want and click it. It will open the picture and at the top left is the option to “Download the (actual) size of this photo.” Click and save it wherever you want it. 🙂
First of all…LOVE IT!!! So much that I made one as a gift and now I have been asked to make and sell 2 more!! My question…I am unsure as to how much I should charge. I did the word “Family” by using 4×6 frames on a 1×10 board. Frames were black on a rustic maroon board. I’d send you a pic if I knew where to post it. I figured I made this for $21.58. I’m think about either charging $5 or $7 per letter. Thoughts??? Thanks so much for sharing this!!
I wouldn’t recommend selling them…unless you are planning on taking original photos for the letters. The site seems to suggest they are for non-commercial use only, so if you’re going to use them I would contact the account holder who’s made the letters available. Credit where credit is due, and all that. Good luck 🙂
I love this idea!! Thank you so much for sharing!
Thanks Ashley!
Thank you so much! I am doing this for one my husbands high school friends who is getting married this June! and have been searching all over for letter pictures that are free..Not going to spend an arm and a leg just for someone else to print them. Thanks for the tutorial!! Love it.
Awesome Bailey! I would love to see pics if you have any!