Library Book Sign Wall and Tutorial

I feel like I should rename my blog, "The Dollar Store Queen". I seriously love the dollar store as much as chocolate cake and I LOVE chocolate cake! I have been wanting to update this little awkward corner in my daughter's room into a little book nook before she was even born. I found the perfect sized wooden signs at the Dollar Tree. I wanted to do something book themed and thought it would be cool to have the name of the places of  books.

Here is what the signs from the Dollar Tree looked like before I painted them. I wish this house ran on island time. :) 

The first thing I did was sand the back of the sign and then spray painted. No need to do anything with the front of the sign because it is going on the back of the wall. I used several different colors for the sign and just used what I had on hand.

I wanted to make the signs look handmade but not too handmade. I looked at several tutorials on how to paint letters and I was really interested in using the chalk method to transfer the letters. Another thing that I wanted to use was font that was true to the book. I found several free fonts that I download to my computer and used in MS Works (it will work for MS Word as well).  Here is the list of fonts I used for each sign.

Paris = Tahoma (MS Works)

Neverland = Pieces of Eight Font (I was going for the pirate look)

Whoville = Grinched Font

Wonderland = Alicia Wonderland Font

Emerald City = PMingLiU-ExtB (MS Works)

Once you have downloaded the font you can install it to your computer. I created a shortcut on my desktop. You just need to right click on the zipped folder and create shortcut. Once the folder is on the desktop you can right click and you will see the option to install and there you go. You can then go to your word processing program and type up your signs.


How to paint the sign by hand: 

First let me start off by saying that this was my very first time painting letters. I am not a very good painter at all, so with that being said if I can do it anybody can do it. 

Step 1: After I determined what font I wanted to use I borrowed some black sidewalk chalk from my little babe and flipped my paper over and applied the chalk to the back.

Step 2: Once I had chalked the back I then centered and taped the paper to the wooden sign and began tracing the letters with an ink pen. You need to make sure you are pushing down hard enough or go around the letters a few times to make sure the letters transfer.

Step 3: After you have transferred the font to your sign you can begin painting. I used a smaller brush with kind of a tip to control my brush strokes and used craft paint for the letters. You can find craft paint brushes and paint just about anywhere. I usually get mine from Hobby Lobby or Wal-Mart

Step 4: I started off in a corner of the letter and realized that I needed to make sure my paint brush always had paint, not too much paint but enough to fill in the letter. You will know if you have too much paint because it is harder to control your brush strokes.

I think I painted the signs to look pretty close to what the font was. I was really worried that this was going to be one of my craft fails, but I think it turned out o.k.!

I used 3M Command strips to hang the wooden signs on the wall and I have a Stanley bubble level app on my iPhone to level my pictures. I love that app!

Awe, it makes me happy when I look at this wall! The best part is that this project only cost me $5.00 and some cents. I only had to buy the signs. 

I hope you all have a great week! 

I am linking to:

Debbie Doos: Seasonal Decorating with Dollar Tree Decor