Let me tell you how this Merry & Bright Holiday Sign came to be!
Well, this was a fun project!!
This adorable holiday sign was created as the result of a challenge! I really do love a good challenge, and I think we should do more around here!
Dixie Belle paint sent a box of goodies to me! It was a Secret Santa box filled with paints, waxes, stencils, tinsel garland, and the cutest little retro vintage deer.
They challenged me to create something. Anything, but I had to use ALL the products in the box!
To be honest, I really wanted to paint a piece of furniture! But who's got room to store furniture just for Christmas?
If you do, then hit me up. We can make something happen!
Watch how this Merry & Bright Holiday Sign comes together!
I chose a sign that I had here in the shop - originally purchased from Hobby Lobby.
Then I painted the sign in a base coat of gray just to block the colors from the original art. Afterward, I chose Mint Julep and painted in one coat.
Using the Retro Lattice stencil, I laid down a second coat of The Gulf (my 2nd fave color) over the dry Mint Julep.
This offered a very subtle tone-on-tone backdrop for the artwork. And hey, I really love these two colors together!!! You will definitely be seeing these used in combination again!
The Holiday Joy Stencil is SO cute and SO versatile!
I used both the snowflakes and the ornaments with the little flashy star accents.
You simply lay your stencil down, scrape the Mud over the stencil, and lift the stencil away. Don't forget to immediately rinse your stencil.
I usually leave the raised stencil to dry overnight before sanding or painting.
Then, when you are ready to paint your raised stencil, simply place the stencil back over the raised design, paint what is showing through the stencil, and lift away!
It's so much easier than worrying about getting your colored paint or gilding wax on your background.
I did just that and used Gilding Wax in silver and Moonshine Metallics Silver Bullet for the stars and the snowflakes.
The ornament is done in Apricot Chameleon Wax, a bit of silver, and two shades of pink.
This Merry & Bright Holiday Sign needed some cute, merry, and BRIGHT lettering!
The lettering was SO much fun!
Why??? Because it was a challenge!
I found lettering online that I liked and just used that to lay out my plan.
I drew straight lines in chalk across the sign for the words.
Hand lettering takes a lot of practice, and I am no pro, even after years of practice. To this day, I struggle to get my slant to be the same!
I highly recommend practicing by just drawing first. Over and over.
Once you have this down, you can take the next step of fattening your letters.
I actually offer a class in this, and you can find it here!
The letters are painted in Peony (my fave color)....just one coat.
This part of the Merry & Bright Holiday Sign project is so therapeutic.
The letters are drawn, and it's so easy to just fill them in with paint!
But I chose to add shadowing!
I used Soft Pink to do this.
It really offers that retro/pop art vibe vintage vibe that I was after!
And finally, the frame (or the perimeter) of the sign!
What else but black and white?!?!
I sprayed a fine mist of Glitter Blast in Diamond Dust over the entire sign because, in my opinion, everything Christmas needs a little sparkle!
And now to incorporate the precious little baby deer and the tinsel garland for a final staged photo shoot!
This was a really fun challenge!
And with this being the giving season, I think there may be a giveaway in the near future!
XOXO,
Tracey
Learn hand-lettering with yours truly:
