Patriotic Signs Made With 2x4s

4 Materials
2 Hours
Easy

With any project, especially building projects, we always end up with scrap pieces of wood that we either have to figure out how to use them for something else or we throw them in our burn pile. Thankfully this time I was able to nab these two 12″ lengths of 2×4 boards before they were thrown in the pile. They were already a perfect length for two small signs for the mantel.


This project was created using leftover 2x4s and craft paint I already had in my craft supplies.


A few weeks ago I shared a post on our Garage Clean Up Project where my husband built some custom shelving to organize the clutter. At the same time I was trying to pull together our Summer Patriotic Mantel and wanted a few more items to include in the display. Taking a couple of the leftover pieces of 2x4s from his project, I was able to make a couple of custom Patriotic signs for my mantel display.


The first thing I did for the 2x4s was to prep it for paint by sanding down the rough edges using 200 grit sandpaper.

Since the 2×4 signs I was making will be part of my Summer Patriotic Mantel post, of course the basic colors were going to be red, white, and blue.


To start, I gave each 2×4 a few coats of navy blue spray paint on all sides. This was easy to do by placing the boards in a cardboard box and spraying them. The box allowed me to work without worrying about the navy blue spray getting on anything else.


Now that I had a base covering in navy, I applied 3 or 4 layers of white acrylic paint over the front and sides of the 2×4 boards.


I had some problems getting the acrylic paint to stick to the spray paint layers, so in hindsight I should have lightly sanded the boards again before trying to add the white paint. However, after applying the many layers of acrylic paint I was able to get enough coverage of the white paint over the navy blue. It just took more coats of paint than I expected.

One sign has the word “America” and the other “land of the free”.


To make the wording for each 2×4 sign, I pulled out my Cricut Joy™ for help and inspiration. Using the Cricut Design Space™ software, I did a quick search for images for either July 4th, patriotic, or red, white and blue. I was able to find two of them I liked and cut them out on navy colored SmartVinyl™.

For one of the signs, I added some extra details like a ban of red acrylic paint color and some twine wrapped around the red painted section.


Since the base color for each of these 2×4 signs is navy, I used my 200 grit sandpaper to sand down some areas of each sign to allow the navy paint to show through.

These two signs were just so easy to make using paint I already had on hand and my Cricut Joy™ machine. The hardest and longest part of the project was waiting for the layers of acrylic paint to dry between each application.

Just a couple of leftover pieces from a 2 x 4 board and supplies you probably already have in your craft stash is all you will need to make these easy Patriotic signs for your mantel or shelf.


They turned out so pretty for the mantel.

Suggested materials:
  • 2x4s   (Construction site)
  • Spray Paint in Navy   (Home Depot)
  • Acrylic Craft Paints   (Walmart)
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Donna Powell
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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