Easy DIY Farmhouse Wooden Signs / No Cricut or Stencils

You've been following my channel for a while. You know I love doing my graphics with my Mod Podge reverse graphics transfer. I make all kinds of

signs

and home decor, I don't have a Cricut and I don't use

stencils

. Everything was just done with mod podge and can create a fantastic graphic on your projects, so I have two pieces of wood that I'm going to make some large Farmhouse

signs

on and I'll show you how I do it today. The first was this piece of wood that I found in the dumpster, it already has a coat of black paint.

I'm going to make these chipped and very rustic looking. um, probably not, it was probably some kind of sign at some point, but I'm going to recycle it and make it into a really cool

farmhouse

sign and the other one I'm going to make is this piece of wood. Actually, my son, his girlfriend and I were walking in the middle of the woods and we found this and uh, so it's gotten old. I've actually had it for quite a while and put a coat of white chalk paint on it, but I'm also going to make it a little chippy and add a big

farmhouse

graphic too using my Mod Podge Reverse Graphic Transfer, so I hope that Enjoy it and let's get started.

I'm going to work on this one first and I'm going to put a little bit of candle wax around the edges. This will leave a really great distressed look anywhere. that there is wax the paint won't stick to it so the black will be exposed through the top layer so I'm being very aggressive I just put it anywhere and this is just a pillar candle I bought at the dollar store works perfect now I'm going to put a coat of um just a little bit of brown, this is just an acrylic paint that I had. I want to create a couple of different layers, so I'm going to paint this.

I know I've mentioned it. in my other videos I love these booster brushes this one has been really loved but they work fantastic for getting into little corners and stuff so I'll put a link in my description if you've never used this brush you need to. grab one to put in your craft supply stash, okay everything is dry so I'm going to put a little more candle wax here and there around the edges just aggressively push it in so the wax adheres him. I'm going to put a little bit here in the center and then I'm going to put a coat of my white chalk paint over the entire sign, spilling it on if you want that vintage look that you don't want it to show through. perfect, you just want to get it hit into pieces where you didn't feel the pain and you missed it and then I'll do it, once I'm done with all this, I have some pickling salt and this is a little different than my paint recipe with salt, this is just kind of a little trick that I learned to give a little bit more texture to your painting, you're just going to take your pickled salt.

I just bought the stuff at the supermarket, it's pretty rough. You can use any type of salt, the huskiness of it is going to determine the texture that you have in your paint and I'm just going to sprinkle it on top of that wet paint and what it's going to do is it's going to melt it a little bit. that paint and when you sand it it will show some of those other colors underneath a very simple way to create a really aged looking wood. This one is dry, we're going to give it a really good sanding and it's going to look real. worn look when it's all finished and this one is ready for graphics and see how it gives it a real pebble look.

I love that it gives a real aged look and will be a fantastic background for your graphic. which I chose so let's start with the graph, okay we're ready to make the graphs, this is one of my favorite farm graphs that I made, this is what it looks like and I put it in my Word program, um. We reversed it and now we are ready to modify it on the

wooden

sign. This is done on regular computer paper. I have a complete tutorial on how to make my graphics. I'll put a link up here and down in the description um that will take you through a deeper um step by step to learn how to do it.

It's very simple, you can use it. I always use my LaserJet printer, but it will work on an inkjet printer, so I have that too. A video comparing the inkjet and LaserJet I will have in the description and you can see it as well and this graphic is also available in my Etsy store. You will get three files. You will get a JPEG. a PNG and the file already inverted so you don't have to fiddle around and figure out how to invert your graphics because this will already be done for you so we'll just use Mod Podge matte and get to work and place It's on my board okay they're all stuck together.

I've removed the bubbles and wrinkles and now I'm going to set it aside, let it sit overnight and dry really well and then we'll be ready to remove the paper. Now, the only thing I haven't mentioned about my signs is that I always like to apply a white top coat before putting up my graphics. If you're using a darker color your graphics won't look as good and I think with the Mod Podge in a darker color you'll get the outline of where the Mod Podge is with the white it all blends in really well so it seems to be what I use for my top coat on most of my stuff now it dries overnight, 24 hours.

I'm just taking a damp cloth and wetting it so you can start seeing the graphics and erasing the paper takes a little practice, but once you get the hang of it, the possibilities are endless. what you can do with this technique and now we are ready to put the top layer and finish it and this is done. I love the effect the salt does on this, it just gives it a little pebble. aged vintage look and makes it look more authentic, more farmhouse style and I love this graphic and it is very

easy

to create this effect by sprinkling some coarse salt on the paint and as it dries it melts into the paint and gives this fabulous texture, let me know in the comments what you think about it.

Well, now I'm going to take my candle wax. There's a lot of grain and texture in this so I think the candle wax will look really cool, just nice. It rubbed over the entire surface and will smear on all those high edges when I put the paint on, so I'm going to go over the entire sign. You have to press quite hard to get the wax. Remove the candle and go over it one more time on this side and then we are ready to put on another coat of paint. I'm probably going to put two or three coats on this one because I want it to look really old. and vintage and don't be afraid to try two or three different painting techniques on a project, you don't have to limit yourself to just doing one technique, that's fine, and I've had this blue chalk paint for a long time. just pat it down to let some of the black still show through, it doesn't have to be perfect and this will just be one of the undercoat colors that will peek through a little bit when you see the old vintage posters, you can see them all. the different colors they've used on them over the years and painted over them and sometimes the colors don't make any sense, but when they're all mixed together they look fantastic, so we'll let this dry. and this is all dry.

I'm going to take a little more candle wax back and forth. I have some yellow acrylic paint that I'm going to put in next just to use it and you can mix and match paint colors. You don't have to use all chalk paint. Sometimes I mix latex and then mix some acrylic with these techniques. It's just fun and you see what works and you know what happens if it doesn't. you paint over it and put another coat on it, so I just want a little bit of the yellow to show through. I didn't have much left of my little bottle of acrylic paint, just enough for maybe that yellow to peek through. a little bit here and there, okay, and then I'm going to let it dry, okay, I'm feeling really creative today, so the next layer I'm going to put it back on aggressively, I'm going to put a little bit of candle wax on it, I'm going to press really hard so that the wax is transferred to that wood. and all those little nooks and crannies around the edge and then I'm going to put some red in again, just hit and miss, I don't know, paint over everything, just let it peek out, it doesn't matter if you have it. added in some spaces and not in another ah, I love the colors of this, that's it and we're going to let this dry a little bit as a process to do all the different layers, but it will be worth it when it's finished, okay? ?

This is completely dry. I'm grabbing my palm sander. I have some 80 grit sandpaper, it's pretty coarse and I'm giving it a really good sanding very aggressively just to get rid of any high spots that it might have and um. Let a little bit of that wood show on the edges and then we'll be ready to put on our top layer. Okay, now I have to do one more layer and I will do the crackle paint technique with Elmer's school glue or any type. of school glue, well, school glue will work, so what you're going to do is just brush it lightly over the entire surface and then I'm going to put a coat of my white chalk paint on top. and as the glue dries, it crackles the white paint on top and all these colors will show through and it will look really fantastic, okay, so let's do it now, the thicker you put the glue on, the thicker. the crackles are finer the finer the crackles are so this is something you can play with and see what you like.

I just leave it on and then I'll take my brush and spread it around you. You don't want to, you don't want it to be too thick in some places and thin in the other, you want the glue to pour evenly and just put it all over the piece and then you'll leave it. Let it sit for about a minute and it gets a little sticky and then we're going to put on some white chalk paint. Okay, this stopped for about a minute. I have some white chalk paint and I'm just going to Leave it if you don't want to go back and forth this way, um, and then this way you want to continue in One Direction and that way your crunch will work better, so I'll just give you strokes. long.

I don't want to work too much back and forth. In fact, I have a complete tutorial on how to do this with more detailed steps. I'll put a link in the description and you can check it out if you want. almost there and I'm also missing some spots, you don't have to have it covered everywhere because you want that color to show through the messy globby it always looks better, okay I think that's all they want there, now just sit back and watch The crackles come, this is completely dry and you can see the crackle. Look what I put because I put a very thin layer on top of a not thick layer of glue.

The creaks are quite small and I love the way it turned out. Check this out here. a little creaky, so what I'm going to do now I'm going to take it outside and give it a really good sanding. Well, I have printed all my graphics. This is a graphic that I'm going to use in this, I was actually inspired by a sign I saw on Pinterest and designed this graphic. It is also available in my Etsy store. Be sure to purchase any of my graphics. Use the code, save 50 and you will get 50. You can remove all the graphics from my store and you can pick them up and make your own projects at home, but I love this one and I think it will look fantastic in this big circle, so I'm going to start using my Mod Podge mat and paste this overseas, but it's causing me some pain.

I'm taking it very slowly. This board is a piece of plywood, it has many grooves and it is very difficult to remove the paper between those little grooves. So I'm really taking my time, wetting the tip of my finger and rubbing the paper slowly. It may be here for a while, but I think the end result will be fantastic, so be sure. stay until the end to see how it turns out guys, okay, note to self, don't use wood when you're doing this technique that has a lot of grooves and holes, um, because it's a pain to get all the paper out of it.

I made an iced coffee. I'm sitting in my shed and I'm slowly working on each letter. This has taken me a lot longer than I thought but it will be worth it when it's done and I think something like that texture, it's given it a lot of character anyway so I'm almost ready guys I've got it all done it was It's practically impossible to get all the little bits of paper out of all these little grooves, but I think once I put my polyacrylic sealer on, a lot of them are going to disappear and it's going to look perfect, so I'm going to put a top coat on now and it's finally done and I love it.

I know it's not everyone's style to be very cheeky and lots of colors like that. but I thought if it really fit this chart and remember you can get this chart in my Etsy store. Make sure you use the code save 50 and you can get 50 off all my graphics there, but look at these colors they are. Taking a look was worth it. I'm not going to say how long it took me to erase all that paper, but it was worth it in the end and I love it. Let me know in the comments which one is your favorite.

Thank you very much for watching today's video and if you have any questions or comments, please leave them below. I love reading them. I will be sharing many more DIY reuse and saving videos, so if you are not already following, make sure to hit the subscribe button and the notification bell and that will let you know when I upload my next video. See you very soon, take care and have a great day.