An Easy Way To Make Custom Signs

Have you ever wondered how people get perfectly painted letters without a cutting machine such as a Cricut or Silhouette? Here’s a secret: It is so easy you’ll think you’ve been duped. Don’t worry, you haven’t but I am going to show you today how to transfer letters for the perfectly painted (or wood burned) sign. All you’ll need to transfer words or images to another surface is a printout of the words or image you want to transfer in the correct size and a pencil. That’s all.  I created this image using a graphic program. You could also do it in Word or Google Drive since it’s just a text based image. When I finished creating the image, I resized it to fit the surface that I wanted to transfer it to.  If you need your image to be larger than one sheet of paper, break the image up using a grid and reassemble the pieces after you print them.  Once you have your image printed, turn it over and rub the pencil on the back of the paper everywhere there’s an image or letter you want transfered. You have to get it pretty well covered in pencil for this to work.  Now turn your paper over and place it exactly where you want it to be transferred.  Use painters tape or washi tape to hold it in place if you’re worried about the paper moving. Using the same pencil, trace around the outline of the letters or image pressing down slightly. You don’t want to press down too hard and give your surface, a wood slice in this case, an indention. You just want to use enough pressure to help the pencil rubbing transfer over to your surface.  When you’re done the surface you are using should look something like this. You can lightly see the outline of all the letters. Now you have a perfect guide. You can use paint and carefully fill in all the letters or in my case, I used my wood burning tool to make this gift for my Father-in-law (who hasn’t seen it yet… hint, hint family).  And when it was finished…. this is what it looked like.  I know that the letters aren’t perfect in the finished work but that’s just my lack luster wood burning skills. However, I know he’s going to love it because he loves his camp. (Camp is what people from Louisiana call a retreat, cabin or lake house – I don’t know why.) There you go – a very easy tip for perfectly lettered signs.  Want more detailed instructions? Here’s a post on How to Perfectly Hand Letter Signs.