SIGNAGE

This project came about since I wanted a sign for my business.  I considered several ideas and landed on a wooden base with vinyl lettering.  The question became what to use for my wood base?  I literally stumbled upon a business here in Denver by the name of Bud's Warehouse,, they refer to themselves as a home improvement thrift store.    "Bud's Warehouse, Denver's Home Improvement Thrift Store, offers 20,000 square feet of doors, windows, cabinets and much more at 50% to 75% off retail."  My sign started to take shape when I saw the unfinished kitchen cabinet doors.

The size was perfect, the wood was lightweight...it was meant to be!

My signature color is a periwinkle blue...I found the craft paint in the perfect color at Hobby Lobby.  All the other paint colors I had on hand.  

My first step was to paint the inside portion of the door. Part of the reason I started with the inside is I was anxious to get started and using small paint brushes and crafting paint can definitely be accomplished in the house.

I was also able to cut my logo from vinyl using my silhouette machine while I waited for the weekend.  We were expecting warm weather that would allow me to work in the garage to finish up the project.  Yay!

I was going for a weathered look, so I wanted a base color of off-white....again, I had some paint left over from other projects around the house, so no out-of-pocket expense.  I actually diluted some of the white and used it to mute the periwinkle and accent colors, painting right over them to give it that weathered look; I also brushed some diluted light grey on top of the white.  I used a rag to rub the paint versus leaving brush strokes.

The finishing touch is the sanding: I removed some of the paint and create the distressed look similar to my distressed cabinet.project from a couple years ago.

After the sanding, I was able to add my vinyl logo lettering.  My business cards have a pair of vintage scissors next to my logo, which I really liked.  So, I found a template for a basic pair of scissors on the Silhouette store and then worked on adding some additional elements to give them a bit more of a vintage feel.

It took me several tries using cardstock to get the pattern just right; after that I cut it from vinyl.
A coat of matte finish Mod Podge over the entire sign and she's done!

I plan to hang it in my studio, but it is also easily transportable so I plan to also take it with me for a tabletop sign when I'm promoting my business in other settings.   Total cost - just under $15 .....Sweet!