Copycat: Home Sweet Home Sign

Last fall I stumbled onto Karla’s blog and fell in love with these paper bats that she decorated her front porch with for Halloween. I loved them so much I decided to do make my own too. They were so easy and worked out just perfect for our Halloween porch decor!

But the bats weren’t the only thing on Karla’s porch that caught my eye. I also fell in love with this sign above her door . . .

I’m a sucker for wooden signs anyway, and this one was no exception. So you know what I had to do . . . make my own :)

I started out with a simple piece of 1x6 scrap wood . . .

Sanded it down, and beat it up . . .

Then I spray painted it black, roughed it up with the sander again (150-grit paper), and covered it with some provincial stain . . .

And this is what I had after all that . . .

I printed out “HOME Sweet HOME” off my computer. Then I proceeded to cut, measure, tape, move around . . . and then cut, measure, tape and move around some more. Ha ha . . .

It was a little tricky getting it lined up just how I wanted, but eventually I had it.

Then all I do is trace over the writing as steady as I can with a ball-point pen. When you pull off the paper, you should have a light indentation that is easy to follow, but not really visible unless you’re looking for it.

Most of the time, I hand paint the lettering, but for this sign I just used my handy-dandy paint marker to fill in the sign. . .

A little more distressing with the sander, and this is what I had . . .

Definitely not perfect, but just perfect for me :)

EDITED TO ADD: The fonts I used were Constantia for "HOME" and Edwardian Script for the "Sweet," which were both found free in my 2003 version of Microsoft Word. I'd love to see pics if anyone of you decide to make your own too :)

xoxo