You Have My Whole Heart (reclaimed fence sign)

I have wanted to make one of these You Have My Whole Heart  signs ever since my friend Stephanie blogged about one she made for her daughter and son-in-law . . .

 

If you don’t have a Silhouette, Stephanie  has a great tutorial  using stencils.

You may remember I had some old fence around after the tree fell on my house.

After dismantling the fence, I cut my boards and pre-drilled some holes, then used some drywall screws to hold everything together.

There are two boards on the back that run the length of the five boards.

I used some white paint to do a “wash” on the sign.

I designed my stencil in the Silhouette Studio Designer Edition. When I make a sign of this size I use one text box, and move it around into the “cut” area. The font is Boston Traffic.

I cut my stencil out of contact paper. My blade was on 2, with a thickness of 3.

As I was laying it out, I realized I should cut each line separately. I used some painter’s tape to hold the stencil in place as I removed the contact paper from the backing. I did not use transfer paper for this, as there were no oodles and boodles with this font.

edited to add: I have a new way of stenciling large signs like this. You can see a video with my step by step instructions in my post Repurposed Pallet Coffee Cup Rack.

I used a Martha Stewart foam pouncer to apply my black paint.

I removed my stencils when they were mostly dry, but not quite dry all the way.

I really like this sign, but…

I think I applied the black paint a little on the heavy side. It needs a little distressing, don’t ya think?

I got out my orbital sander and gave it a once over.

It looks funny staged on my fence, being that the sign is horizontal fence boards while the fence is vertical!

I’m going to be sad when that old fence is all used up.

What say you, would you have distressed it, or left it alone?

gail

More rustic fence projects here:

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see more bits and pieces projects here:

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