DIY Family Established Monogram Wooden Sign

Have you been looking for handmade gifts ideas, or maybe you want to make some personal decor for your home? If so then you will enjoy this super easy and affordable DIY Family Established Monogram Wooden Sign.

DIY Family Established Monogram Wooden Sign

When Eric and I were trying to come up with gift ideas to give our parents at our wedding we knew we wanted to give them something personal and handmade, especially considering nearly everything else in our wedding was handcrafted.

For this project, I basically used the same technique as I did for my “love you to the moon and back” wood sign. I will go over the steps again quickly here but feel free to reference that post or this one on our wood slice ornaments for a more detailed tutorial.

The first thing we did was cut down 2 pieces of old barn wood we had on hand. I sanded them down lightly to make it easier to transfer the letters but wanted to keep most of the imperfections.

I then used Illustrator to make the monogram and plan out how I wanted the sign lettering to look. You could use photoshop, paint, word, etc. Basically any image or text editing software will do.

I then flipped all of the wording horizontally. This step is crucial if you want your sign to come out correctly!

I then enlarged my letters to make sure they would fit proportionality on the wood sign. I printed them out on 3 separate pieces of regular copy paper, and then taped them together so they wouldn’t move when I placed them on the wood.

I made sure to have a bowl of water handy, some tape {I used frog tape}, a paintbrush, a sharpie marker and a tape measure to help me figure out the placement of the letters.

After I taped the pages together {I cut some of the paper edges off so they could be closer together and appear more seamless}, I flipped the papers over and onto the board where I wanted them to be transferred. I then taped the papers to the board so they wouldn’t move while I worked on the transfer.

I then dipped my paintbrush into the water and started “painting” the water on top of the board. Don’t get it soaking wet or it will just tear up the paper. You will start to see the ink bleed through the paper at this point. I then used the cap of a sharpie marker to “burn” the letters/image into the wood by scratching it over the paper.

This is what it looked like once I removed the paper:

I then went back over it with a small paintbrush and some diluted black paint {you can use whatever color you want} to fill in any spaces.

When it’s finished you can add some clear sealer on top.

We also attached picture hanging hooks to the back along with some twine, so it can be propped up on a shelf, or hung up.

This is what it looked like when I was all done:

And there you have it, a super easy DIY family established monogram wooden sign that you can make for yourself or give as gifts.

Update: Here’s a photo of the sign I made for my dad and stepmom, which has now been on their front porch for about a year and a half. It’s definitely weathered looking but I’m surprised how well it’s held up, especially since I’m pretty sure I forgot to seal it. Woops.

SaveSave