“Sign, sign, everywhere a sign Blockin’ out the scenery, breakin’ my mind Do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the sign?”

I loves me a good sign. Inspirational, funny, bossy…. You hang it and I’ll read it. Owning my own business, I know that a sign isn’t usually hung until someone has committed an offense more than once, so I am often transfixed by some of the signs I see as I ponder the future of humanity.

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While C.Dolly’s husband was busy constructing his baby/dog gate at their house, C.Dolly took the opportunity to have him cut a few boards and glue them together for our signs. She then asked him to stain them a lovely shade of gray to form the perfect backdrop for our witty and artistic renderings, to which he responded, “Isn’t this going to be my Christmas present? Are you asking me to make my own gift?” C.Dolly then had the good sense to stain the boards herself. If you don’t have such a willing husband or the inclination to make your sign yourself, you can use canvas or pick up some premade blank wooden signs that are ready for you to create your own design on at Michaels.

Supplies:

canvas or wooden sign
acrylic paint
carbon paper
pencil
printer

Instructions:

Using your word program, print off the phrases and script of your choice. Play with the size until you have the layout you want. Cut the words out so that you can work with the carbon paper one word at a time. Measure from the top edge of a board to the top of your letters to make sure they’re applied in the center of each board. Tape all the words and images down (applying tape along the top edge so that you can lift the word up and slide your carbon paper underneath it.) If the tape isn’t sticking very well, make sure you hold onto the word so that you aren’t trying to get everything lined up again.
Place carbon paper underneath the word. Make sure the carbon paper is right side down to avoid having the carbon design the back side of your paper. You need to make sure your background is light enough for the carbon outline to show up. You will be left with an outline for your wording that you can then paint.
Using the paint colour of your choice, fill in the outline with multi purpose acrylic paint.
Gaze upon your creation with wonderment, because, how in the world did you ever get to be so amazingly creative??

~R.Dolly

*Yes, I do realize that more picture instructions would have made this so much clearer, but it was a day of days and even though we were giving each other multiple back pats for remembering to take pictures through out the process, I didn’t realize that my SD card wasn’t actually in the camera until the very end. Oopsie poopsie!