July 24, 2012

Frugal, Homemade Wooden Signs

So I've been eyeballing a particular project from Pintrest for some time. A friend of mine brought over some firewood to burn in my fire pit. We loaded it in the wheelbarrow and once I finally saw it, I knew I had to keep some!  So this is what I wanted to make. Sarah has so many great ideas as well as her followers that comment. So I tried EVERYTHING to make this work. Either the ink wouldn't transfer, or it wasn't dark enough. I used two different printers, heat, water, pressure...everything. My husband could see my frustration and gave me some suggestions...one of them was to just give up. I almost did, until I researched and found this. This was my saving grace. Had I not found Angela's blog, I would never had followed through with my project. Here's my pictures and success stories about my amazing signs.

The cost:
I picked up a couple of mis-tint samples at Lowe's for $0.75. I also splurged a bit and got a sample of a light blue color for $1.50.
The wood was free.
The ink was what I already had in the printer.
The wax paper came out of my cupboard.

I painted the sanded surface. I knocked most of the paint off the brush before I went to town. I was very careful not to completely paint all of the edges and some of the middle to give it that laid-out-behind-the-barn-forever look.

 I cut out wax paper the size of the printer paper and taped the side that went down into the printer. Be sure to change your printer's settings to print the mirror. For me, I had to print it as an iron-on transfer for it to flip.

 After printing, you have some time to get the newly printed wax paper to the board. I lined it up the best I could since I printed on 2 sheets. I then carefully placed it down being sure not to move the paper once I got it on the board. I then used a card to add pressure and flatten it out. I then carefully removed the paper in one solid motion.

 Here is my finished product. It sits proudly on my buffet in my kitchen/dining room.

I didn't stop there, I also made a couple to go on each side of my window about my buffet table.



I nailed some regular nails into the top of the board and tied twine around them to make the hangers. Please let me know what you think! Feel free to send me your own antique boards.

2 comments:

  1. These look great, and I'm planning to try them out for Christmas gifts! One question, what do you mean you "taped" the side of the waxed paper that went into the printer? Which side did you tape, and for what reason? Is it necessary?

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  2. With the printer I have, just feeding the wax paper through it didn't work out so well. I printed a draft on a normal piece so I could judge how big or small to cut my wax paper. By taping the wax paper to the printer paper, my printer didn't eat it. It glided smoothly.

    Depending on how your printer works, I don't believe it's necessary. Test it out and experiment.

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