Handmade Market Sign

So as I sat in my kitchen being lazy and do nothing, as I had all day today, it occurred to me that I promised to show a tutorial of the Market sign in my kitchen!! And I had said I'd share it the next day, which was 2 days ago!! Whoops.

So I just took a few pictures of it while the sun is already half down and storm clouds are rolling in. Sorry if they're not the best. My camera stinks anyways....but I'm half way there to my dslr :)

I made this sign with a piece of scrap wood I had in my garage. It was a 1x8 that was about 3 feet long. I painted it with Miss Mustard Seed's milk paint in Boxwood green. It was my first time using it and I love the color!! My bottom cabinets might be going this color in the near future.

(yeah, ignore the nasty, stained carpet)

I found a font I liked and tested a couple of M's until I had the right size, then I printed out the ARKET :) I went with the font Adobe Caslon Pro in size 500. 

I colored over the back of every letter as I always do when tracing...

But this time when I went to turn them over and trace over the front of each letter the pencil didn't transfer onto the sign like I thought it would. So I tried again pressing extremely hard with my pencil. The pencil mark still didn't transfer but I had made an indention of the letter into the wood! So I took my pencil and followed the indention drawing the letter right onto the wood.

As you can see the wood wasn't perfect and the paint job wasn't either. I only did one coat but I liked how it already looked somewhat distressed so I just stopped there!

After drawing on every letter I took a tiny paint brush and painted them in with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in pure white. Then I took a tip from Miss Mustard Seed and painted a tiny border around the sign. I also used a tip from Miss Mustard Seed and gave each letter a shadow.

To make a shadow you take black paint and paint around the whole letter making the bottom and right sides of each letter a little thicker. It gives the sign dimension and makes it look very professional.

After that I sanded the whole sign hitting the edges and corners extra well and then waxed it!

All done! It only took me one day and that was amidst babysitting, grocery shopping and preschool runs!

Oh yeah, I hung it on the wall with these. I love them, I use them to hang everything. It's low commitment because you know you can take it all off whenever you want without any damage!!

Sorry again about the delay posting this!! :)

Sharing at:
Happy Go Lucky
The Real Thing with the Coake Family
Simple Home Life
Tater Tots and Jello
Funky Junk Interiors
Sassy Little Lady
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
HomeStories A to Z
Nap Time Creations
Elizabeth & Co.
Adventures of a DIY Mom
Carolyn's Homework
House of Hepworths
504 Main
Not Just a Housewife
Thrifty Decor Chick