Did you see the fun JOY sign I made for our front steps for the Christmas season? I am trying to control myself to not put it up before Thanksgiving! I love it so much!
I was totally inspired by this Joy Sign photo that I found on a blog years and years ago and saved to my hard drive’s inspiration file way before Pinterest was an option. If you know who the original maker is, I’d love to give them credit!
I started with a scrap piece of wood that was given to me.
I dry brushed red paint over it …not trying to get it into the wood….just trying to get color on the top of the wood.
I used one of my favvvvvvorite REDS….”Heartthrob” from Sherwin Williams! FYI: flat paint will look most “vintage”.
And the board looked like this.
Within a few hours, before the paint had time to really harden, I sanded the board and used a stiff bristle brush to chisel back the red paint to look distressed. TIP: If you use the brush to go opposite of the wood grain….cool distressing happens! That’s the kind of thing that gets my heart rate going!
Then, I had already ordered a Joy Sign stencil from The Mad Stencilist. They are my go to for alllllllll of my wood stencils. Tell Hugh I sent you. They do amazing work!
So I dry brushed a flat white primer over the lettering. You can watch me do it for this Joy Sign on the video below or HERE.
After the primer dried, I used some glitter than I got from Kathy Carroll’s Chicago School of Faux Finishing and it’s just enough glitter….the words dance in the sunlight!
No, I am not leaving it out here with my fall decor, but I just wanted to see how it is going to look. And I LOOOOOOOOVE it!
The challenge in this joy sign project is finding the barnwood. If you find some, you are golden. Get the stencil and your life will be so much easier!!!!
Wishing you JOY as you begin your Christmas decorating!
PS…. if you’d like to have all future blog posts emailed directly to your inbox, go up to the top corner of this page and enter your email address in the box in the corner. I will send them straight to you!
Blessings,
Jennifer
Love this Christmas joy sign ? See my Fall version here. It’s so amazing, it went viral on Pinterest!
And if you feel like painting more than just signs, check out my free video of my favorite wall colors. This paint color advice will help you pick out the perfect color when you tackle a room in your house!
7 comments
I saw the sign on pinterest, but have no clue who posted it. I added it to my Christmas decor album on facebook.
Awesome and thanks for the paint colors, etc. for making this project an easy one.
Thank you for the great tutorial. Welcome to WordPress.
LOVE the new website! Congratulations on the big wordpress move. You’re a big girl now lol.
Are you on blog lovin? It would be awesome if you were and had a follow button.
Love the bar wood sign too. So cute!
EEK….I am so new to this furniture refinishing wonderland and I apologize for asking but what is “dry brushing”? I have my barn wood and am all ready to make this but don’t want to mess it up by not using the right technique. Can someone shed some light on this for me?
Dry brushing is when you take 99% of the paint on your brush off and then lightly go over the piece you are painting with it. So, put the paint on the brush and off load it on a piece of paper towel until it’s pretty much gone.