Gift Idea: DIY Sign with Family Name & Year Established

Need a last minute gift idea???  I've got one for you!  Take a look at this family name sign I made for my sister....

I gave it to her last month for her birthday but thought I'd share it now as a gift idea.  It was pretty easy to make and it adds a thoughtful personalized touch for the recipient! Here's how I made it...

I started by getting a piece of wood to make the sign out of.  We actually had some scrap wood pieces in the basement so my hubby just cut one in the size I needed.  Then I grabbed my FAVORITE wood stain Minwax Special Walnut 224 wood and stained the piece of wood to give it a more antique style.

Love that stuff, used it on my DIY Vintage Style Crates and Cutting Boards

After staining and drying, I began to stencil on the letters.  I didn't have an actual stencil in the font and size I wanted so I just printed out the letters I wanted from our computer.  Then, I carefully cut the letters out and traced them onto the wood with a pencil.   I thought the sign would look nice with the last name spelled vertically and the year established date in a smaller font at the bottom horizontally.

Once I had the letters traced out with pencil, I used an Elmer's Paint Pen to outline them with black paint. 



I HIGHLY recommend Elmer's Paint Pens for this project! Without it I don't think the edges of each letter would have looked so straight and crisp!  Plus, you can use them on just about anything- wood, clay, fabric, glass, etc.

After I outlined each letter with the paint pen, I got out some black paint and brushes to fill them in.  I didn't use the paint pen for that part because I wanted it to have some thicker paint for a more authentic look.

I was soooo happy with it once I was finished!  I couldn't wait to take it to the post office to send to her!

Here is a picture of the sign once they found a nice home for it in their house.

Thanks Holly for sending me a picture to post on the blog!

Isn't it nice? I think it adds a proud family touch to their home!  I think I need to make one for us now!

Hope everyone has a nice week!  I am sort of scrambling with last minute Christmas to-dos :(  why do I do that to myself every year???  Wish me luck... I hope I don't become a Grinch in the next couple of days!

PS- if you haven't seen it already, be sure to check out Holly & Brian's DIY Built-Ins!!!