Learn how to hand-letter a sign with this detailed tutorial that includes video! This is a very affordable way to make meaningful wall art for your home!
I love wall art that’s meaningful. Of course, great pictures of my grandkids would top my list of favorite wall art, but I also love making wall art that means something to our family. Today, I’m sharing a sign that I made for our dining room. I love how it turned out!
The blessing that I hand-lettered onto the sign, is the same blessing that my family said before every family meal while I was growing up. It’s also the blessing that my husband, kids and I said before our family meals, and I just found out that my daughter has been teaching our grandchildren to say it before their meals. So, it has a lot of meaning for us!
This sign was very inexpensive to make – I already had all of the supplies for it except the carbon paper!
So, if you have a quote or saying that your would like to make a sign for, this is a great way to do it without spending a lot of money. So, let’s get started!
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How To Hand-Letter A Sign
Materials Needed To Make A Hand-Lettered Sign
- A 1 x board the width and length you would like for your wall area.
- Paint – I used white paint for the background of the sign, and black for a border around the edge.
- Paintbrush
- Carbon paper
- Printer to print out the letters
- Ball-point pen
- Sharpie fine-point markers
Instructions
I’ve created a video to show how I made our hand-lettered sign, I’ve also written out the steps below the video.
- Cut the board to the length you want for your sign.
- Paint the board, and let it dry.
- Optional step: Create a border around the edges of the board by taping off 1″. Paint the border and the edges of the board.
- In Microsoft Word, pick a font that you like and print out your words in a large font. Print out the words and lay them on the board. I taped the pieces of paper together. You may have to play around with the font size until all of the words fit nicely on your board. (The font I used for our sign is Footlight MT Light and the font size is 250.)
- Lay the paper with the letters face side down on a surface, and then tape the carbon paper to the backside of the letters, making sure that the lightest side of the carbon paper is next to the backside of the paper – the darkest side of the carbon paper will be facing up.
- Lay the pieces of paper and the carbon paper that are all taped together onto your board with the letters face up.
- Trace around the letters. Tip: My sign has two rows of words, so I did the first row first, and then the second row so I wouldn’t smudge the outline of the letters.
- Take the paper and carbon paper off of the board.
- Outline the letters with a Sharpie fine-point marker. (I tried outlining and filling in the letters with paint and a small brush, but I found that I had a lot more control with the Sharpie markers.
- After you’re done outlining the letters, fill in each letter. This is where you want to put on some good music, and just zone out. It can take a while to fill in all of your letters.
- After you’ve hand-lettered the first row of letters, then do each of the next rows of letters if you have them.
- Install one or two picture hangers on the back of your board, and hang on the wall. Enjoy!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial for how to hand-letter a sign! Have you made meaningful wall art for your home? I’d love to hear about it!
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