Reasonable Wedding Post: DIY Reception Sign

After scouring the internet for a sign to post at our wedding reception, I decided I wanted to do ours myself.  Because our wedding is semi-destination and is on an island, we wanted something beachy that looked hand-painted.  I had a vision of what I was looking for, and I have to say - this turned out just how I wanted!

Keep reading for instructions on how I made my own wedding reception sign.

I got a thin piece of board from my local AC Moore, and painted it with acrylic paint in the color Vanilla.  This color was extremely close to the actual color of the board, but I wanted something that was a little more even and that helped as a base for the other colors.  I painted multiple coats, and allowed it to completely dry.

I got a cheap, large stencil from AC Moore that depicted the scene in aqua above.  I chose a bright aqua color, also acrylic, for that part, and applied it using a sponge brush.  I wanted it to look a little bit messy - not perfect.  I wanted the sign to look like a handmade beach sign, and the sponge with the stencil and a bit of a loose hand definitely gave me that look.  I let this completely dry before moving to the next step.

I chose my fonts in Word, then printed the mirror image using WordArt.  I have a standard black and white laser printer that doesn't do mirror imaging itself, but a lot of printers do.  If yours doesn't, just use WordArt to reverse the letters.  These sizes worked for me, so I moved on to the next step - getting them transferred to the board.

I used a standard mechanical pencil to trace the letters.  I wasn't particularly neat with it - just thorough. I am just using these as guidelines for painting, so they don't have to be completely perfect.

This is what the letters look like, after tracing.

After tracing the letters, I lined up the sheets of paper so that the word is connected and placed where I want it.

Rub the letters all around where you had traced so that the tracing rubs off on the board, like below.

Do both halves of the word (if you need two pages) so that you're ready to paint.

Now that the word is traced and ready, just paint using a small, precise paintbrush.  It doesn't need to be perfect, but these pencil marks serve as a nice guideline.

Voila!

And now it's time to go play... Someone is waiting for me.