Even though we can't have anyone over at this time due to covid19 restrictions I still wanted to make a new welcome sign for some reason. Maybe wishful thinking. Something colorful to brighten up my porch a little bit. I was interested in trying out some extra decoupage using Gator Hide to seal in some paper designs and to add more spring color's with the brightly printed paper to this sign. It was really quick and easy so I think I will look at changing my letters to paper craft in the future as well. I have always used vinyl stick on letters in the past but realized after this doing this project that paper looks great and is a much faster process with no pre-masking to do.
This is the inexpensive pine plank I started with and a picture of it half stained with Vodoo Gel Stain in "Up in Smoke" to show you the difference the stain makes. I used a sponge to apply the gel stain to the entire board.
Next I darkened only the edges with extra Vodoo Gel Stain to give it a fake bark look from the side view.
It was very quick to apply and I had a nice grain showing through in no time...
Using my Cricut cutter I prepared my letters to spell welcome and cut out several sizes of leafs on a watercolor card-stock so they all looked a bit different. I then printed out a colorful pup on my regular printer on copy paper.
When the board was dry I lay out the design and decoupaged it all with a light coat of Gator Hide. 30 minutes later I gave it one more overall coat of Gator Hide.
The letters are vinyl and the rest is paper. I'm not sure I will use that font again as I don't really like the letter c but overall I was really happy with the card-stock leaf colors and the added decoupage.
The finished result...
Bright and spring like I think...
Hope you enjoyed!
Andrea