DIY Name Sign

So as I said before I have been doing my best to get in touch with my "crafty side".  During the school year I don't have much time to get fun little projects done so summer is my crafty/project time. :)

This little DIY is something I decided to make for Father's day. Each year I try to be creative with at least one gift for my family, which could fall on any holiday (birthday, Christmas, Mother's/Father's Day, anniversary, etc. . . ). So this year I honed in my crafty skills for Father's day. I had seen this idea to make a name sign on Pinterest and decided with different color tones it could look really cool.

First, I found this website where you can choose from literally hundreds of letters, download, and then print them. So easy!!. . . unless you have trouble making decisions, then this could be tricky. Lucky for me, I picked out all of the ones I liked and then sent them to my wonderful sister who decided which letters looked best together. Since not all of the letters on the site are black and white you may have to edit them if that is the "look" you are going for. That was my look. . . so I changed them. I ended up getting them printed out as photos, but I'm sure you could also print them out from your printer at home.

You can find that website HERE!

I then went to Walmart and bought some of the amazing 4x6 frames they have available for only $2.00 and then decided to add my own touch to them with brown paint. Like I've said before, it depends on what you are going for, so you could paint them any color you want! When you have painted the frame how you like it, you can put your photo letters into the frames.

Next stop… Home Depot for the wood. This part is not particularly fun for me because I get the most absurd looks from the men in the lumber section when I tell them I need wood cut because I'm using it for a craft. BUT, you do what you have to do to get the job done. I do not have a saw, nor do I desire to use a saw to cut a big piece of wood by myself. Therefore, I have to approach lumber guys and ask them to cut the piece of wood for me. I ended up getting a 2x12x8 ft piece of wood and had them cut it to length I wanted (this varies depending on the number of frames you have).

To stain the wood, I picked up Minwax PolyShades that has the stain and the polyurethane all in one. This makes your life SO EASY. . . I highly suggest using this. It is easy to use (read the directions) and doesn't take forever to dry which makes it better as well. Just a couple of coats and you are done!

After you have stained your beautiful chunk of wood you can glue on the frames. I used Gorilla Glue and that worked perfectly. When all of that is dry, you are finished!

I loved the finished product! What do you think? I'm like it so much I think I'm going to make one for our house too.  :)