DIY Father's Day Sign
Father's Day is this weekend! If you're still unsure what to give dear ol' dad, we have a project for you. This DIY Father's Day Sign is simple and makes a big impact!
Gather up your kids and let's get started!
Step 1: Purchase your stencil. There are a variety of individual letter stencils available at craft stores. Stencils like the one we used with this project can be found on Etsy or from a crafty friend! Specifically, our stencil came from Give Me A Sign by Stacie, a local crafter who specializes in sign making and sign workshops. It is a vinyl stencil which means that it will stick to the board which comes in handy for uncoordinated people, aka us.
Step 2: Cut your base board. We decided to make our sign 8” x 13.5” which is the same size as our stencil including it’s negative space. You can use any type of wood for your base, but we used a basic, easy-to-find pine from our local lumber store.
Step 3: Paint your base. We chose black to keep with a neutral theme. If you don't want to distress your sign, do more than one coat of paint to your liking. If distressing with a sander, only paint one coat of paint so that it's easier to sand through.
Step 4: Distress your board. With either and electric sander or a sanding block, distress your board to your liking.
Step 5: Place your stencil get stenciling! Stencils like ours come in three parts: the base paper, the vinyl stencil, and the transfer tape on top. For this step, peel of the base paper and leave the other two layers stuck together. Pro tip: pull the base paper off as tight as possible as it will make the peeling process cleaner and simpler.
Placing our stencils was very simple. We made the "Love You" stencil the same width as our board in order to take the guess work out of placing it. Use a scraping tool (even credit cards work) to adhere your stencils to your board.
Once placed, we got to work stenciling with cream colored paint. Use a makeup sponge to start pouncing your paint onto your stencils. Pro-tip: Use as little paint as possible to keep the paint from bleeding under the stencils. If needed paint more coats in order to get everything to be even.
Step 6: Remove your stencils. Once your paint has dried, peel off your stencils from your board! This is another simple, no fuss step. Feel free to peel like crazy!
Once you peel off the majority of your stencils, you will be left with remaining pieces of stencils in the inside of the words. Use a pointed tip tool or tweezers to remove the insides.
Step 7: Handprints! Gather your kids and paint their hands using a paint brush in order to conserve paint, then place their hands on the board. Pro-tip: Make sure to help push each finger down so that you get a solid handprint!
Step 8: Stain your sign. Yes, you read that right, go ahead and throw a coat of stain on your sign to give it that “finished look”. The stain fills in those spots that were sanded and we find that it tones down the starkness of the white on black (plus it tends to hide any imperfections).
Once you're finished staining, your Father's Day sign should look something like this!
Step 10: (Almost done, promise!) Fasten your sawtooth hangers on the back of your sign. We attached our sawtooth hangers 1” inward from the board edge and ½” down from the top. If you prefer D-rings or another type of hanger, feel free to use those instead!
Follow our step-by-step tutorial to hang your sign with Hang It Perfect™!