Diane's Patriotic Wooden Door Sign

This week, we're having a red, white, and blue spangled celebration! I'm feeling particularly joyful and rah-rah-go-America since John will be home soon. But, because he'll be home soon, I've got tons of things that need to be done-- including quite a few trips across four states over the next two weeks.

Of course, I didn't want to leave my wonderful readers and friends high and dry  I've got some amazing bloggers for you to meet! They're all awesome at what they do-- whether it's crafting, baking, cooking, creating-- and I'm positive you're going to love them!

Check out all of the Made in America Week posts here.

Hello Jo, My Gosh! readers! I'm super excited to be here today! I'm Diane and I blog over at DD Kimball Road! I was so excited when Jo asked me to guest post for her so she and her beau can spend some quality time together! The wheels were spinning for something patriotic to do! First off, a little about me. I am a twenty something interior designer who lives in the greater Los Angeles area of California. I am married to the most wonderful man a girl could ask for and tied the knot in 2007. In 2008 we adopted our shelter pup Miss Shelby, a Labrador Rhodesian Ridgeback mix. My blogs are just an online diary of my life, my design style, all my crafts and some recipes and miscellaneous thrown in! 

So, now that all the formalities are out of the way....lets get down to the nitty gritty. Seriously, I have no patriotic decor in my house! Such blasphemy since I come from a military background. So I decided to remedy that and make myself a little patriotic sign! I'll tell you right now that I had big plans for this, plans that had to be scaled back due to time.....I tend to over think a project trying to figure out all the ways I can do it.

Supplies:

• Scrap piece of wood (mine is about 6"x14")
• Sand Paper
• Contact paper (you know for lining your kitchen drawers, Dollar Tree!)
• Xacto Knife
• Paint (Several colors; red, white and blue)
• Paint Brushes (Or sponges)
• Glitter (optional)
• (3) fabrics (for rosettes)
• Glue gun and glue
• Steel Wire
• Eye Hook Screw
• Drill and Bits
• Pliers with Wire Cutter

1. As you can see, I had planned for it to be a MUCH larger piece. Oh well. Anyway, take your wood and sandpaper and sand the surface down a little to be able to let the paint stick.

2. Paint 2-3 coats of white paint onto the wood, I did fairly light coats and made sure to make my brush strokes seen for that rustic look. I also tried to make it look a little like white wash. How you want it to look is totally up to you!

3. Once your paint has dried (over-nightish) take your sandpaper and sand around the edges and on the surface a little to give that aged effect. I did a little in the corners and some in the middle as well.

4. Ok, here's where it may get tricky.....well at least it did for me. First time experience with using contact paper in my printer.....didn't go too well. Ideally this is what you should do. Cut your contact paper 8-1/2"x11" to fit into your printer. Print out your image onto the top of the contact paper, not the paper back. Using your Xacto knife carefully cut out your stencil, and place it centered on your board. Press the edges of the contact paper down so it sticks nicely and the paint will not seep under. Here's what I did....I printed out my image on regular paper until I figured out a good size. Then I placed my contact paper in my laser printer, mistake 1, upside down, mistake 2. Realized that I did this, I put the *ahem* 'warm' contact paper, mistake 3, back in the machine and re-printed it. It came out of my printer a melted ball of mess. So I took my regular printed paper and did the old scribble on the back with a pencil and then trace onto the contact paper trick. The font that I used was a little tricky to cut out as I had to cut out all the small pieces and then re-position them onto the board, but it made for a really great look! Take the extra time and just do it!

5. Paint over your stencil with a paint sponge or just a brush....I of course found my sponges AFTER the project, so I just used a regular paint brush. I also put glitter on it once my last coat of paint was a little tacky. It looks super fun! Let dry and carefully peel away your stencil. To get the smaller pieces off I used the tip of my Xacto knife.

6. Make your rosettes. I used three different fabrics, two were patriotic and one was blue with a Scottish Terriers on it, but hey rolled up you can't tell! I used this technique to make my rosettes....again first time trying this skill! I cut my fabric 1" wide by about 14" long. For the red and light blue rosette I used two strips and for the navy rosette I used 3.

7. Flip your board over and attach your eye hooks and wire. I would pre-drill the holes to get you started. You can use these instructions to help you out! Once your hanger is attached flip your board back to the front. Take your glue gun and attach your rosettes to the front.

8. If you like you can take a strip of burlap and tie a little bow on the wire. Hang and admire your work! :-)

I'm so excited to have this in my home! I need to get a hanger for my front door. but for now it looks nice hanging under our little family portrait. I hope you enjoyed this post and if your looking for any other crafting projects, or just wish to stop by and look around please head on over to my blog, DD Kimball Road. Thanks for reading!

Diane

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