My $0 Beach Sign

First, let me say thank you to all of you who have written to tell me how sorry you were to hear about my dog.  We miss her so much, but each day is getting a little better.

 Now, let me tell you about this little project I worked on yesterday.  As many of you know,  I'm working on my finishing touches in my kid's beach themed bathroom.  I really wanted to make a "Beach" sign to hang in there, the only problem is that I am not an artist AT ALL. Repeat.  Not an Artist....AT ALL!  I can draw stick people...and flowers.  That's about the extent in which my artistic abilities lie.  So how did I make this sign you ask?

 Well,  it's actually pretty simple and I made it without a Cricut, Silhouette, or even stencils.  I don't have any of those in Lewisville, but I'm hoping there will be some good before or after Christmas sales on the Cricut or Silhouette.  Those machines are awesome, but so far I have to figure out how to do awesome signs without them.  By the way, I LOVE my Beach sign!

 Ok, so this is how it all started, and yes, this sign didn't cost me a penny!  BONUS!
A few weeks ago I picked up this unfinished wood box at Hobby Lobby.  I took it home and stained it for personal use.  These boxes look good and they're great for organizing.  The finished box was sitting in my garage, but as Mr. Lewisville was cleaning things out one day, the box fell off the table.  Crash. Broken. Pieces.   

Now, here's the strange part.  I kept all the pieces.  The box itself was useless, but I thought maybe I could use the wood pieces for "something" down the road.  It's been weeks, and I finally found a use for it.
The top of the box has these great panel grooves.  I'm loving all the wood pallet art work that's going on out there, and the top reminded me a little of that look.  The slats are perfect for a "Beach" sign!

 Since the lid broke off, I decided to cut it down to a reasonable size and use it for my sign.  I bought this saw kit from Home Depot a while back so that I could cut moldings and trim.  It's come in handy for times like this, but I could really use a hand held power tool.....hmmm...and Christmas is coming up.  HMMMM.

 I had to use a little wood glue to fix some of the edges that broke off.

 And I re-stained it to get it nice and dark, even though I was going to paint over it later.  I'll explain later.

 See, it looks great just as it is!  I love this dark mahogany stain.

 I spray painted white over the stain so that the stain shows through just a bit.  It gives the sign more of a rustic/ vintage look instead of the perfect white sign.

 Now, without a Cricut or Silhouette, or even stencils, you can make your own sign with just your computer.  Here's how.

Use a software like photoshop, MS publisher, or any other favorite.  Choose a font that fits your theme and sign.  In my publisher document, I used Viner Hand ITC to make the word BEACH.  The font size was at 250.  

I printed it out using my economy setting so I didn't use as much ink.

 I talked about using the tracing method when I made my Easter Sign and my Flower Boxes.  In this method, you take a pencil and push hard against the letters to make a faint groove in the wood.  This gives you an outline/ impression to paint in your letters.  That didn't work as well here because of the slats in the wood.  I ended up cutting my letters out using a razor blade, then just traced the letters with a pencil.

 Then I simply used some grey acrylic paint I already had and went back to kindergarten, making sure to "color" inside the lines.  I went over the letters with three coats of paint.

 That's it.  Simple. Easy. Free!

 I want the stain to come through a little more.  It's hard to see here in this picture, but it does show up.  I think I'll be sanding the edges to make the sign look more weathered.  You'll have to come back Monday to see that in the bathroom reveal!

So there it is!  My Beach sign for the kids.  They all loved it by the way, lots of  ohhhs and ahhs.  I love my my little Lewisville fans.  Hope you all have a great day!

Blessings,

Lisa