DIY Vintage Style Gone Fishing Sign

by ScavengerChic

Considering all the fish themed signs I make, you would think that I, or my family, would be really into fishing. As a matter of fact, we stink at fishing. But I still love fish signs...I think it's because fish come in so many shapes and colors so even if you mess up it could still look like a fish.

diy vintage style gone fishing sign, crafts, painting

This project requires no special sign cutting tool, just a little paint by number skill.

My sign started out with an old weathered board, about 23×10″.

If you don't have an old board, strips of pallet wood will work just as well.

Entire board was given a coat of linen chalk paint. I used less on the edges as if the weather had worn off some of the paint.

Follow the white with a border of lime green all around the edge.

The fish I decided to use for this project is from The Graphics Fairy. She has tons of vintage clip art and several other fish that you can download for free. This one is a Golden Fish.

The graphic was enlarged on my computer to the size of my sign, printed out, trimmed, then taped back together. I usually use Microsoft Publisher because it came with my computer and it allows me to enlarge a graphic to any size.

Without carbon paper, I always resort to the next best thing…scribbling on the back with a pencil.

The pencil acts as carbon paper, so that when you trace over the image it is transferred to the board.

Start painting your fish. It can be as detailed or as plain as you like.

After the fish was painted, I transferred the lettering to the sign in the same way I had transferred the fish. Now it was just a matter of filling in the letters just like a paint by number.