DIY Personalized Sign

I had a spot to fill on a shelf in my living room and I really wanted to put something there with some meaning. I started looking for quotes that could relate to us, but I couldn't find anything that resonated with me. So, I decided to use the lyric from one of my favorite songs. I love it, it's the ring tone on my phone when the BF calls, and it is one of my all-time favorite bands! I started with a wood plaque that I bought at Wal-Mart and spray painted it white. I decided on how many lines I would need and found the center of my board. I marked my lines with a pencil.

I picked a font that I liked and used Ashley's Subway Art Tutorial and Jen's Beachy-ish Subway Art as inspiration. I cut out my words using my SILHOUETTE onto some vinyl. I used my lines as a guide and placed all of my letters on.

The lyrics are from one of my favorite songs "Bumblebee" by The Band of Heathens. They are a Texas Country (Americana if you're not from Texas) group, and I love them! If you click on their link, you can actually listen to the song in the playlist on the right. It makes my heart happy! :)

So after all the vinyl letters were placed I painted over it with a mixture of two blues, then went back and added a couple layers of each color. I wanted to do this for when I started sanding at the end, to give it some dimension.

Then, I let it dry over night and used my Silhouette's Hook Tool to remove each letter. Then, I headed out to the garage and used my sander to rough it up a bit. I sanded the edges and over the letters and paint a bit.

I thought I was done at this point, but the white underneath was a little too stark for the look I was going for. So I took some brown paint and diluted it with water to give it a little stain. I just brushed it on then quickly wiped it off.

Perfect! And now it sits so nicely on my shelf.