Sign painting 101: Lettering tips & tricks

Welcome to Transformation Thursday! It’s the one day of the week we all get together to celebrate getting stuff done. No matter if you’ve been coming around for months (or years), or this is your very first transformation rodeo – everyone is welcome to link up your projects at the bottom of this post.

This week I’ve been sharing a few tips on how I paint signs. We’ve talked about paint & brushes, but now it’s time to get to the nitty gritty of it all – filling in those letters!

First things first, I always use an outline. I do it by tracing the outside edges of the letters through carbon paper onto the wood. As you can see, mine is NEVER perfect – I straighten it all up with the paint.

For fine fonts like this one above – I used a Liner #1 so that I can get into the corners.

I dip my brush into my paint straight up and straight back out. In my mind it keeps the bristles in the right place (‘course it might just be me…)

M’kay… lemme see if I can explain without going in circles. If there is a sharp angle, like the top one (with the blue arrows), I swipe my brush from the corner in, then from the corner up, and from the corner across. Then I use my brush like a magic marker and swoop around the loop.

On the bottom part, I go from the corners in on each side, connect the corners with another swipe, then swoop around the edges. The swiping in from the corners helps to keep them crisp.

  I use straight strokes to do the straight lines, one beside the next to fill it in and barely overlap the carbon paper lines.

Don’t be afraid to turn the sign to whatever angle you need to get those swoops in the right direction. I always think it’s easier to stroke towards me, almost like writing.

No matter if I’m doing big, chunky fonts or thin precise ones, these tricks always help me keep the corners clean and lines crisp. I hope some of these ideas helps you, too :) Wonder why I did a “be mine” sign?

Because I’m joining my friends Liz at Hoosier Homemade, Kellie at Nest of Posies and Amy at The Idea Room to bring you Valentine’s Week – hurray! We’ll kick it off on Monday and I can’t wait to share all we have in store.

Sooooooo……. whatcha got? I wanna see – and so does everybody else! Please put your PERMALINK into the linky – and link back here so everyone can find all the great ideas. Please, please, PLEASE – pretty please DO NOT LINK TO A SHOP!!! Be sure to visit your neighbors and have fun – it is a party after all. *Please note: If you link up you are giving me permission to use your photos on my blog without contacting you (don’t worry, it’s only to show off your beautiful stuff!)*

Welllllllll…………. Let’er rip, tater chip!