I am so happy to have a fireplace in the house and that means I have my first-ever mantle to decorate! I knew I needed a statement piece, and so I made this Merry and Bright Christmas sign! I LOVE this piece and I seriously skip a step whenever I walk by the mantle and see it. I am totally a kid at times, but I’m ok with that.
I started by making a stencil for the sign. I used the fonts Chopin Script and Mayonnaise Condensed on a cutting machine. I blew it up to the size of the sign. I highly recommend removable vinyl but I didn’t have any on hand so I pieced together several sheets of cardstock to make the stencil.
I used leftover fencing flats from our fence project (yes, I still have more). Hubby cut them to size (26″ x 4″ each) and I used a TON of wood glue to glue all of the pieces together. Actually, I like things super sturdy so after I took the above pic, I added hot glue around each of the backing boards. Overkill should probably be in my name somewhere. And, yes, I did this on the kitchen floor because it was 20 degrees in the garage. The front side was lightly sanded down to keep the character but make it a little less rough.
Now the painting process for this Christmas sign. I wanted to create a distressed sign that looked slightly vintage but not overly worn. With distressing wood, I am a less is more kind of gal. These pictures are a bit rosy-yellowed because of the kitchen lights.
First, I used a warm grey that I had leftover from my son’s room and mixed it with the milky white chalk paint I bought. I painted with a natural bristle brush and got in all the grooves and sides of the wood. That coat dried for 2 hours before adding the next coat. I layered a top coat of the milky white chalkboard paint making sure it was pretty thin. While the white paint is tacky, but not dry, I took #2 steel wool and lightly brushed areas to reveal the grey color underneath and highlight the character of the wood until I was satisfied.
Then I traced the stencil made earlier with my cutting machine. This is a very large stencil that covered the whole board pretty much.
And lastly, painted the merry and bright letters and reindeer. What I love about this project was that there are no mistakes. Well, maybe if you dump the paint can over it, that might be a mistake. I did not worry about getting the letters perfectly even in color or getting in all the grooves because it looks perfect the way it is. Now that you are probably tired of me gushing over this, I have a little something for you as well!
Links to Free Files:
Silhouette Cut File (.studio) – a preview won’t load but you can download.
*Making a sign is definitely much larger than 12×12. The file includes the original Jpeg I designed and it is traced for your convenience. However, in order to use it, you will have to resize it your desired size and then tile it for cutting. You can tile in the business version of silhouette or here is a great video about how to tile in the Silhouette Design Studio.
Merry and Bright Sign (SVG version)
PDF 8×10 Printable with chalkboard background
This file is available to all newsletter subscribers as part of my free printable library! Sign up below to check out all the freebies and join our creative community!
Looking for more Christmas Craft Ideas? Check these out:
- Take a Tour of Our Christmas Home
- A crafty Christmas Treat Tree
- 15 Charming Printable Gift Tags
- Christmas Activity Bucket List
- Holiday Entertaining and Decorating Must Haves
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Jenny Wiggins says
I recently started using my Cameo to make large sign stencils. I print off using the tiling feature but I will have to admit I am running into a lot of problems. I would love to get any pointers on how you use your Cameo to print large signs. I currently tape together and trace with graphite paper.
Rachel says
Happy to help! What specific problems are you running into? The biggest problem for me seems to be when certain lines run off the page and you get all these tidbits. For the tiling feature, I usually try to break them up in a way that keeps the fewest lines that run off the tile. For instance, a sign like the Merry and Bright Sign above, I would make long verticle tiles, and not long horizontal tiles. The more intricate the cut, the easier it can be to stretch the material. On this particular sign, I was actually out of vinyl so I printed a paper template first, taped it together and then made the cut version. It was a bit more time but what I loved about it was that I wasn’t staring at an odd shape wondering where I missed a piece! I always seem to loose the negative space pieces like the hole in the ‘e’ or the dots for the ‘i’.
Merianne says
I love this sign! You did an amazing job! Question for you….once you traced your stencil, did you hand paint the red parts? Why couldn’t you have just painted over the stencil then take it off? I’m so new to this so obviously there is a reason, just not sure. I would love a copy of the file if you have it. I have a silhouette so you could just send it in a silhouette file. Thank you so so much!
Rachel says
For this particular project, I designed it in Photoshop at 26×36 inches. Of course, I can’t print sheets that big and my silhouette cameo won’t either. I taped this whole thing together on 8.5×11 sheets basically. So first I printed it and taped all of those together to give myself a proper sized template. Then I did another copy on the silhouette and matched it to the printed template. I have done it before, but splitting up something (like text) larger than a printable area on a silhouette is time-consuming. Rather, I just slid it a bit at a time and made stencil section at a time. This lead to some overlap in areas and I taped the silhouette areas together to match the printed template. That would have been a mess with vinyl or something with a sticky backing and I trusted my painting skills enough to do it without. I hope that makes sense!
Elesa says
Where did you find the cute Santa and Reindeer?
Rachel says
Interestingly, I actually have no idea where I got it from. I didn’t buy the design so I may have made it since the reindeer all look identical. Anyways, I do have the original files from this project. I have a jpeg version and a silhouette cutfile (.studio) version.
Lauren Reinke says
Would you mind too dearly to share the file? I myself have a Silhouette and would love to make this for the upcoming Christmas season 🙂
Rachel says
Hi Lauren! Haha, you caught me just a bit too early. I am working to get this and all my other files as part of an exclusive free download library for newsletter subscribers. I am adding JPEG, PDF, and .studio files- even some that are not on the website. The library should be ready this week or next and I will send an email to all subscribers with the password. I know you will love the sign and I hope you will send me a picture when it’s done!
Joy says
Wow, your so talented, I love it!
Emily says
I love this sign!! I need for my house.
Stephanie says
hey, just wondering what fonts you used? i just love them together!
Rachel says
Thanks, Stephanie! The fonts are Chopin Script and Mayonaise Condensed.
Hillary Seymour says
i may have skipped over it but what two paint colors did you use? trying to find the perfect red is a chore! it seems you’ve done the work for me!
Rachel says
I mixed my own for the most part. You can layer different types of paint for a project like this so long as they dry thoroughly. The grey underneath is basically some latex paint leftover from my son’s grey room mixed with a white chalk paint. Then I layered the white chalk paint after the grey was dry. The red is actually a multi-purpose acrylic craft paint that I had on hand. The color (I am pretty sure since I still have it) is “bright red” and made by Plaid. I got it at Micheal’s craft store. IMHO, bold red is my favorite, but leaning towards the darker muted tones. I hope that helps!
Rebecca says
THIS IS IT!!! This is the project you were talking about!!! I love it. SO much. You did an amazing job and I think the fact that you didn’t stress yourself out over it and try to make it “perfect” made it perfect because I don’t see anything wrong! You did SUCH a great job!!!!!!!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!
And the colors are perfect too!
OKAY I HAVE TO ALSO MENTION..Your resourcefulness! So many of the materials were things you already had!
Sorry is this too much? I’m just really excited for the gorgeous sign! PERFECT EXECUTION!