Family rules sign

I made a Family Rules Sign, the hard way! 

These signs are everywhere. I think they are so cool. I wanted one for my living room. You know I’m all about using what you have. I did not have a wide board, but I have a lot of luan.

Build up the Family Rules sign with a frame

I cut the piece of luan. See that green blob? You know what that means. I paid .51 cents for the entire sheet. It was the piece I blogged about Monday. I still have a lot left. I just used some off the end.

Because I wanted it to look like a thick piece of wood rather than thin luan, I ripped some 1x’s and made a little frame on the back.

Paint your DIY sign

Design the layout for your stencil

This is where it gets detailed. I cut my phrases out of construction paper on Cathy’s Cricut. I used different colors so that I could try to keep track of the bubbles and inside pieces to the letters. Cathy has one font cartridge, so I used the fonts as many ways as I could. Cathy hasn’t used her Cricut much and I have never used one so it was a challenge for us to get this right. The only thing I can remember is we used 12 inch wide construction paper and used the “fit to length” feature. That gave me different heights on the fonts.
I laid the strips out on my board and taped them together with painter’s tape.

Spray diy stencil with adhesive

I used Elmer’s Craft Bond to get a temporary bond. Following the directions it says to spray a light coat, wait 3-5 minutes then apply.

Protect painted board with painter's tape

After applying the stencil to my board I made sure I covered up every speck of black board. I tediously put in all the little missing pieces on the e’s, a’s, o’s, etc. A glue stick was used a to adhere those little bits.

Use spray paint for DIY stencil

I took it outside and sprayed it with white paint. You can see that I apparently didn’t spray the adhesive well enough on SMILE. I’ve learned that when you spray stencils, you spray it straight on, being careful not to tilt the can. (If you tilt the can, the paint can sneak under your stencil)

I used a dish cloth with some slightly soapy water on it to soak off the remaining paper and glue stick.

DIY Family Rules Sign

I know I am certainly not the first to make one of these. I was going to cut it all out by hand, but decided to borrow Cathy’s Cricut instead. I’m glad I didn’t do it by hand, because I am so pleased with how it turned out.

I have one spot that I sit at on the couch to do my blogging business. Every time I look up, this is looking right back at me!

My number one goal in life is simply to “be happy”, that’s why I put it at the top. All the other phrases mean a lot to me too. I try very hard to follow all of these rules. Wouldn’t it be a better world if everyone did?

gail

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See more stenciling projects here