How to Stencil a Wooden Sign

Megan
by Megan
4 Materials
$15
20 Minutes
Easy

One of the most affordable ways to make a farmhouse/rustic sign is with stencils! You can buy stencils at Walmart, Hobby Lobby, or even your local hardware store.

To Begin, make sure your wooden surface is clean. I Happened to find this already put together wooden sign at Goodwill. It had a pig on it and said “Eat bacon”. lol. I painted over the wooden sign with Chalk Paint. ( I used Annie Sloan because that is what I had on hand. I have used Folk Arts Chalk Style paint when stenciling wooden signs and it works great as well! It is also much more affordable. Also Wal-mart sells already put together wooden signs for $10.


Once your surface is clean and you have painted it white. Let dry about 20 minutes. You want the sign to be nice and dry before stenciling. When sign has dried lay out your stencils. Lay them in the order that they will be on your finished sign. You want to make sure that all of your letters will fit BEFORE you start stenciling. If Not you can end up with “Little Ones To Him” And then you have to repaint and start all over so that you can fit “Little Ones To Him Belong.” 


After stencils are all laid out and you know they fit on your wooden sign you can begin by placing the first letter on the sign and using your stencil brush lightly dip in to the folk art paint. You just need a small amount of paint when stenciling. Wipe off any excess paint on a paper towel or shop towel. Begin stenciling your first letter by making dabbing motions up and down over and over again until you have completely covered the inside of the lettered stencil with paint. Lift stencil and notice your perfect crisp lines! This is because you did not paint up and down brush strokes. (took me a long time to figure out that stenciling isn't painting with brush strokes, it's really a dabbing motion.)

Continue to stencil letters until you have each word done. The easiest way to line up the letter stencils is by matching the top of one letter stencil with the top of the next letter stencil. Its the best way to have your letters stay in a straight line and not have an “L” up high and an “I” down low. 


PRO TIP: I like to use my smaller font stencils for the longer words. This makes it so you KNOW you can get your longer words on your project. 


I also screwed in a little metal clip so that a picture of the sweet baby can be hung. YAE!!! You did it! You stenciled a wooden sign! Great job!

Suggested materials:
  • Wooden sign   (goodwill or Walmart)
  • Stencils   (Walmart)
  • Folk Art chalk based paint or Waverly Paint   (Walmart)
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Megan
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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