Guest Project -- Create a Festive Candy Cane Holiday Sign!

Hi Tatertots and Jello Readers!! I'm so excited to be here today.

My name is Bev and I blog over at Flamingo Toes.

Flamingo Toes is my place to share sewing, crafting, and jewelry tutorials - as well as pretty much anything that pops into my head.

Some of my favorite things to do are knockoffs - and that is what we are doing today!

I have a fun Christmas Sign tutorial for you - 

my Candy Cane Kitchen Sign!

Isn't it fun and vintage-y?



I got the inspiration for this sign from this super cute plate I found at Pier 1.

I just fell in love with the design but I decided I needed it on a bigger, grander scale.

Here's what you'll need to make your own:

• 1 - 1x6 piece of wood, cut into three 16" pieces



• Glue



• Craft Paints & a variety of brushes



• Base Color Spray Paint



• Freezer Paper



• Exacta Knife and Cutting Board



• Sandpaper



• Iron



• Design Patterns - Click Here to Download

I started off by recreating the design on my computer. Then I took each segment and made a separate paper pattern for each. You can skip that and use the Design Patterns I created if you want.

Glue the three sections of wood together, along the long sides, so you make one large square. Clamp the wood together while it dries.

You can skip this next step if you want, it's your call.

Go out to the garage and check your wood - and realize you've glued it to the concrete.

Say some fake swear words and pry it up with the hugest screwdriver you can find. Nice.

Consider setting your boards on something else, or upright, while they glue.

Once your boards are glued together, spray paint the front with your base color.

I used a Burgundy but it wasn't quite dark enough, so I did three coats, one Burgundy, one Black, and the last Burgundy. That gave me the nice dark red color I was looking for, with the added benefit of another layer of color that will show when it is distressed.

I believe you could do several of these next steps with a Silhouette or other cutting machine. I do not have a magical machine so we'll be doing this old school.

Cut out all your pattern pieces. You will need to tape several of the large pieces together since they are too big to print out on one sheet of paper. On the "Cane" Pages, I've left the outline of the word "Candy" so you will know how close together to place the words.

Layout everything on the boards to check your placement.

Trace the designs onto Freezer Paper. Leave enough room around the designs so that when you paint, there is plenty of Freezer paper around the stencil.

Paint your base colors on the sign with your craft paint. I used a light turquoise, a dark red, and a dark blue.

Cut out your stencils. I used an exacto knife on a self-healing cutting mat.

You don't need to worry about the little snow marks or the windows. You can add those details back in by hand later.

Lay the tree stencil at the top of the board so that the bottoms of the trees just barely overlap into the red section.

Lightly iron on the stencil.

Here are some tips for ironing onto wood.

• You don't want the iron super hot. It will cause the paint to bubble excessively. We want a little of this, because it will help with distressing, but not too much.



• Be careful to keep the iron on the freezer paper. Use the tip and sides if you need to. Paint WILL come off the wood and onto your iron. If this happens use a balled up damp paper towel and wipe it off while the iron is hot.

Once the stencil is in place, paint the trees and house red.

While that is drying you can do the same thing with the Kitchen and Bakery stencil. I did the little stars by hand, and I used the same light turquoise paint that was at the top.



For the letters that had pieces inside (B, E, and A) I cut those little pieces out separately and then placed them in position before I ironed it on.

After you paint in the designs, lift the stencil. You could have some base paint come off, because of the ironing. This is fine. Saves work later.

There is a chance that the paint will leak under the stencil just a bit. Once the paint dries, just go over the edges a bit and paint over those little sections with a tiny brush. This will clean everything up.

In this picture you can see the stars, the snow on the trees, and the windows of the house. You can also see where some paint came up with my stencil. Cool huh?

Next steps are the large green circle, the candy cane, and the snowflake on the top right.

For the candy cane, I stenciled in a lighter red than the base red, and then painted the white stripes by hand. You could make two stencils if you don't want to free hand it, and then stencil the white once the red has dried.

Once the green circle has dried, stencil on the other snowflake.

Last stencil - the Candy Cane lettering!

That looks pretty awesome, but it's way too "new" looking. Time to distress! Or in other words - scrape off some of your previous hard work. ;)

For the distressing, I sanded all four edges. I used smallish pieces of freezer paper at different parts on the sides and ironed them on, then pulled the paint off.

Then I sanded some of the lettering and shadows. I finished with a light sanding in both directions over the whole sign.

Here are some close ups of the distressing.

And we're all done!! So much more fun than a little plate right?

I hope you enjoyed the tutorial!!

I'd love for you to come say "hi" at Flamingo Toes. 

Here are some of my other favorite knockoff projects . .

Anthro Limitless Strands Necklace











Ballard Spool Side Table

 

Anthro Paisley Rebirth Necklace

Thanks so much Jen for having me over - it was pretty much the highlight of my month. ;)

Beverly - that sign is so awesome. 

What a great tutorial. Thank you so much for sharing it with us!  

Be sure to check out Flamingo Toes!! 

 And here are a few other fabulous tutorials from Beverly that I love: 

{Fabric candy Jar Labels}

{Colorful Retro Christmas Dishtowels}

Thanks again Beverly! 

And, check out My Chihuahua Bites today -- Andrea is starting a new series, Ask a Mom, with a different mom each week answering questions. It's going to be a fun series - hopefully we can all learn from each other. And guess what?? I'm the mom this week! I am spilling all about my crazy life!



PS -- It's Friday! The Weekend Wrap Up Party starts at 6 pm {MST}. I can't wait to see what YOU have been working on!!

xoxo

This post brought to you by