Baby Room Sign DYI

I had found a sign with a saying on Pinterest that I loved...but to buy a custom-made sign like that was going to be at least $100. I decided I wanted to figure out a way to make one. After looking at stencil options at the craft stores, I was pretty discouraged because I had a very specific image in my mind of how I wanted the sign to look, and I wasn't finding any stencil/font options that I liked. I bought a canvas anyway, and went home to research some other ideas. I found a blog on how to make your own stencils, and I decided to try it. I liked the idea, because instead of stenciling each individual letter and trying to space and align single letters at a time, I could position the whole entire saying before painting it. It worked wonderfully, but it took FOREVER. I kept telling my family "I should have just spent the money to have someone else do this!" While I was in the middle of carving out each individual letter with an x-acto knife, I told Jon "This quote used to make me cry cause it was so sweet, now it's making me want to cry because I hate doing this tedious project!" It took me (with help from my mom too) about 10 hours one day to prepare the stencil and a couple hours the next day to paint the canvas. It ended up being exactly what I wanted though, and now I can tell my son that I made it just for him!

The total cost for the project was $28

-Canvas: $10

-Paint: $4

-Paint roller/sponges: $2

-X-acto knife: $4 with a coupon

-Contact paper: $2

-Spray adhesive: $6

Step 1

Paint the canvas white. I just used simple acrylic paint and painted a thin layer so that there was a base to paint letters on.

Step 2

Measure out a piece of contact paper to fit the size of your canvas. I just bought some cheap contact paper (like what you use to line drawers/cupboards) at Big Lots. This is what you will be using to make the stencil, so make sure it fits the canvas correctly.

Step 3

Print out your quote and lay it out on the contact paper to get the spacing and arrangement that you want. What I did to get the quote was this: I opened Word and made a text box that was 1/4 the size of the canvas. For example, The canvas I used was 22 x 28 inches, so I made a text box that was 5.5 x 7 inches. I typed the quote, using several different fonts and sizes/styles, so that it was a mini replica of exactly how I wanted it to look on the canvas. I then took each word and multiplied the font size by 4, since the canvas was 4 times the size of the text box I used. I printed out each word, cut the extra paper from around the outside, and taped the words together for each line of the quote, as you can see below.

Step 4

Once you have made sure your quote fits on the canvas and is spaced the way you'd like, you need to attach the words you printed to the contact paper. I did this using adhesive spray. You want to attach the whole word, not just around the edges of the paper. Attach each word (or whole line, if you taped all the words together) to the contact paper in the exact arrangement and spacement that you want. This is what you are going to be stenciling onto the canvas.

Step 5

Next, the fun part. NOT. This part took so long, and I wished I would have just bought a Cricut machine haha. Cut out each letter. Cut through the paper and the contact paper - leave the sticky backing of the contact paper on for this part...don't peel it off yet. I started cutting the letters with an x-acto knife, but found that it was much easier to just use a utility knife, because it cut through all the layers better. I used a cutting board so that I didn't cut through the wooden surface I was working on. My mom helped a lot with this part. She and I both sat watching the Oscar's while we cut letters out.

Step 6

This is how it should look once you've cut out all the letters. For the letters with an inner circle, like the O pictured below, I left a small section attached at the bottom so that when I painted, the entire inside of the letter wasn't filled in. I then went and hand painted the bottom of the O once I was done painting the whole stencil.

Step 7

After the entire stencil has been cut out, peel the backing off the contact paper (slowly, so that you don't rip any of the letters) and attach it to the canvas. I used a credit card to make sure all the letters stuck really well to the canvas. Any parts that weren't completely adhered to the canvas would allow paint to bleed under and mess up the letter. I then took a small paint roller and rolled paint over the whole stencil.

Step 8

After the whole stencil was painted, I peeled the paper off the canvas, again, VERY slowly. Some of the paint had dried a little, but it didn't really make a difference. I then went back and did touch ups and filled in the letters that needed to be completed, like the O's.

The finished product!