Sparky's Scratches Real friends don't care if you're a little different…

For years I wanted to do something artsy, and I mean using my hands and not on the computer.
Glue and me don’t go together though, so I’ve started many projects only to abandon them in different stages of construction. Many different stages, but never finished!

When I stumbled upon the cutest signs at a store (the equivalent of the dollar store, I suppose) I knew this was it.. now or never.. so I bought them and started fumbling.
It certainly was trial and error, but I’ve learned from my mistakes and am really happy with the results. More signs are being worked on, hoping to show them off soon 🙂

These are some of the things I used for the signs. You can pick whatever (scrapbooking)paper you have. If you’re like me, your supplies are more than enough for loads of signs 🙂

Supplies I used:

Paintbrushes (small and large)

Scrapbook paper

Scissors and hobby knife

Glue dots

Adhesive tape

Mod Podge (I used Matte)

Distress Ink (Tim Holtz)

Ink blending tool

Sanding paper

Embellishments

Flowers

Lace

Hearts

Ribbon

Little bows

Buttons

anything from your supplies that looks good 🙂

First I painted the sign white. Used the small brush to get into the tiny spots that needed covering and the large brush on the front and back, so you get even strokes.
You don’t have to paint the front, but I wanted to make sure that – if by accident the paper wouldn’t cover the sign completely – you would still see a white sign and not the original brown.

Let it dry completely. Although the paint I used seemed to dry very quickly, I wanted to be sure it was really dry before I started adding things.

The second hardest part: deciding which paper(s) to use.
You could cover the complete sign with only one paper, but I wanted to do the letters seperately.
For the sign in the pics I used one paper, but cut the letters one by one, making sure that the pattern was not connecting to the next letter.
I’m now working on another sign for which I’ve used two sorts of paper, the colours match but the pattern is different. Or you can go wild and use a totally different paper for each letter.
It’s up to you, it’s YOUR masterpiece you’re creating 🙂

The hardest part: tracing the letters and cutting them out. So many tiny curves and twists, this wasn’t crafty as I imagined, this was a chore!!! This was the point where I wished for an ‘undo’ button!
I used sanding paper to smoothen the edges of the paper (to get rid of any cutting marks) and at the same time roughen up the edges to give it the ‘old paper’ look. Then I inked the edges with the distress ink.
Once that is done, the fun part begins!

Cover the sign with Mod Podge and stick the paper to the letters. Not pressing too hard at first, so you can still reposition the paper until you’re satisfied.
Once that is completely dried, cover everything with Mod Podge again, thus protecting the paper.
Then look at your embellishment supplies and start putting items on your sign – don’t attach them yet, just put them on, change positions, turn them a bit to the left or the right, add another item and fiddle along until you like what you see.
Then you can use the glue dots, adhesive tape, glue or Mod Podge to attach them to the sign.

Et voila:

A gift for a dear friend of mine 🙂

The tiny roses in the last pic were white, I’ve used Distress Ink (Tattered Rose and Victorian Velvet) to colour them.

I’m now working on the ‘Love’ sign. Thought that was appropriate with Valentine’s Day on the way, but then I thought of something totally different. Brilliant, even if I say so myself 😀 Almost finished, just need to add the finishing touches.
Watch this space!

Posted in Blog, Crafts, Photos, Tutorial by Antoinette at Sunday, February 9th, 2014
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