Day 12- Beach Subway Art- Beach Weekend begins!

If I had to restrict myself to only ever making one type of sign, hands down it would be beach signs!

I’ve drooled over beach signs for years and years, even collecting more than my fair share of them. And now I can make any one my heart so desires! Fortunately, my best friend is JUST as beach obsessed as I am (and so is her mom!) so I do have others to make beach signs for!

Beach signs were also my best sellers at my most recent craft fair!

I’m going to spend the weekend talking about and showing you some of my beach signs and featuring some from around blog land.

Today, I want to show you my beach subway art!

This piece of beach subway art that I made for my best friend, was actually the very first sign I ever made!

I already showed you this one on Day 3 when I went over making signs with your own stencils. I made this for my best friend, a reminder of all the beaches we have been to together in North Carolina. I also did a full post on just this sign last year when I actually made it!

Awhile later, I made this one for my living room, with beaches my husband and I have been to together. It does have a few of the same as with my best friend, since we’ve been to some together with her and her husband! You can definitely tell I’ve known my best friend longer than my husband since her sign has more beaches! Haha!

I’m looking forward to hitting some more beaches so that I can make some more beach subway art!

Want to make your own beach subway art? Check out yesterdays post on all the different ways to make signs and pick which one works best for you!

Check out all my posts in my 31 day series on making wood signs....


Intro
Day 1- Where to find wood
Day 2- Gathering your supplies
Day 3- Making signs using your own stencils
Day 4- Making signs using pre-made stencils
Day 5- Making signs with stickers
Day 6- Making signs free-handed
Day 7- Making signs with stamps
Day 8- Making signs with transfers
Day 9- Print a sign
Day 10- Making signs with cutouts


I sometimes link up to these lovely ladies' parties:

Day 9: Print a sign

This is part of my 31 day series on making wood signs. To see the other ways we've discussed making signs already, visit the 31 day introduction page.

Don’t want to spend the time working on painting, stenciling, or transferring a sign? Print it out!!
You can develop a photo or print from your home computer and adhere to wood for a “sign” appearance! Super easy!

Here’s one I made for my husband for his first father’s day.




It’s easier to read in person and says “Some day I will find my prince, buy my daddy will always be my king.” So sweet of my husband and my oldest little one! I would've liked the words to be bigger, but this totally worked to make a sign in a pinch!

Here’s how to do it:

1. Decide what picture/saying etc. you want to use.

2. Print it out on your home printer or send it to get printed from a photo developer. (I chose 1 hr. printing since I have a laser printer that isn’t great for pics!)

3. Pick out your board and predrill holes for hanging with ribbon, twine ,etc., or nail a saw tooth hanger to the back.

4. Paint your board whatever the background color of your print is. I painted mine black on all sides and at the top (where you’d see around the holes).

5.  If you drilled holes for hanging, line up and hole punch your picture so that you can tie off your twine or ribbon.

4. Spray your picture with spray adhesive if it’s a printed photo, and if you use a printed picture you can mod podge the board, then lay down your picture and smooth out air bubbles.

5. Thread your twine or ribbon, or just pound a nail in the wall and display!



The Winthrop Chronicles did an awesome tutorial on how she made this Baby Stats Subway art, just by printing and mod podging.  Hop over to see how she did it!

I really thought this was an actual painted sign when I saw it!

 

Go to my 31 day series homepage to see all the posts on sign making (updated each day new posts are added!).

Or check out what we've discussed so far!

Intro

Day 1- Where to find wood

Day 2- Gathering your supplies

Day 3- Making signs using your own stencils

Day 4- Making signs using pre-made stencils

Day 5- Making signs with stickers

Day 6- Making signs free-handed

Day 7- Making signs with stamps

Day 8- Making signs with transfers

I sometimes link up to these lovely ladies' parties:





Hop on the Subway!

I made a ton of Subway art recently, and I'm having a hard time letting it go!

I *may* have had it hanging around my house in between craft fairs! :)

Here's some fall subway art I've been working on in several colors! A few of them are already gone, some will hopefuly be gone after this weekend!

Is there anything better about fall than a Pumpkin Spice latte?? Or milkshake?? :) Until recently it was still definitely warm enough for milkshakes still! Speaking of Pumpkin Spice.....I've got some coffee signs coming soon, but next up is Christmas Subway Art!

NC Beaches Subway Art

I just got back from a trip to Wilmington with my family and my BFF (I wrote about my thrifting/shopping there here!)

Before I went, I made this sign for my BFF!

We usually hit up the NC coast, beaches and cities a bit inland around 2-3 times a year. She's much closer since she lives in Charlotte, but I still try to make it as much as I can even from far away Nashville!

I had a vision of this sign before I made it, and it surpassed my expectations!


Here it is:

And here's how I did it!


- 11x14 wood board from Home Depot
I got a huge board from Home Depot cut down into 6 11x14 pieces, plus a few small leftover pieced I kept for other projects! I can't remember what this board was called, but it was right by the MDF boards.

- Drilled small holes in the top to string jute (didn't take pics of this!)

- Sanded around holes to make them smooth

- Painted board White

Why are my fingers covered in paint? Oh I left out a step!

- Clean up the mess that happens when you shake a bucket of paint that has the LID ON LOOSE!!!

Have to say, I'm kinda glad that it was a cold day, and I painted inside! At least everything I spilled on was already white or almost white! It actually was trim paint that I used so I put it to use by touching up some spots in the house. Don't think the dishwasher needed that new coat though! Ha!

- Used Silhouette machine to print out beaches/cities onto vinyl, used "weld" tool to make each word one piece- makes it easier to transfer in my opinion! You could use stencils or lots of other things too!

- Applied vinyl letters to board.

I *could* have done this reverse, painted the board black and applied the white vinyl on top, but I wanted a more finished look.

- Spray painted flat black over the top, didn't want a glossy look for this project. Home Depot carries a basic flat or glossy black for $.99!

Yeah, that *blinding*white may be some leftover paint!

- Peeled off letters with tweezers.

I thought it would benefit me to work quickly before the paint dried, but turned out that the letters at the end were actually easier to get off because I didn't smear any paint. (easily wiped up where I did smear though!)

Oh yeah, these are my Revlon tweezers that I cannot live without for my eyebrow plucking!! I should get some ones I can get paint all over! I did give them a good scrubbing....when I went to pluck my eyebrows the next time!

Let's add some black paint on the hands to those leftover white flecks!

- String jute through holes, tie knots and hang!

I originally purchased sawtooth hangers to put on the back, but changed my mind. So glad I did because I love the look of the jute, and it was much easier! I was just gonna wing it and hope the sawtooth hangers would work on the thin piece of wood!

- Debate over actually delivering this to BFF cause I am in loooooove with it, but give in when I realize I can do it all over again!

- Take lots and lots of pics of it, outside and in!

It's safe to say I WILL be doing this again!

I have plans for a bigger black and white one using vacation spots for me and the hubby (it'll go on the wall next to those black and jute apothecary jars you see above!!), and another one with these same beaches for me, but blues, tans, and shabbied up which will match our guest room! At least thats the plans I have for now!

I'll be linking up here!