In today’s post: You can make this cute DIY “Love” sign in under thirty minutes – and for about five dollars. Use our free printable background or create your own. Easy Valentine’s Day craft idea.
Today’s project is a really simple Valentine’s Day craft that turns out super cute! I found a blank wood sign at Dollar Tree and added a love poem background, then topped it with a wood cutout of the word “Love”. I finished it off by adding beads to the twine used the hang the sign. It’s an easy, modern looking Valentine’s craft idea. And the process is so simple, you could multiple versions for different holidays.
Supplies
The best thing about this project is that it’s very inexpensive – my sign only cost about five dollars. Here’s what I used:
- Blank wooden sign from Dollar Tree ($1.25). The sign I used is 7.5 inches tall and 11.75 inches wide, but the the dimensions inside the framed edge, where the background text will go, are 6.5 inches tall and about 10.8 inches wide. Do not choose a sign with inside dimensions bigger than a standard 8.5×11 inch piece of paper because you’ll be printing out the background and you’ll want it to cover the entire sign.
- Black wood beads from Dollar Tree ($1.25)
- “Love” word cutout from Hobby Lobby ($1.50)
- Red acrylic paint from Walmart ($.50)
How to Make a “Love” Sign
The only other thing you need for this easy sign is a printed background. I made on with the classic “How do I love thee?” love poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning on it. If you can find the same wood sign I used at Dollar Tree, you’ll be able to print out my background, making this project super simple. Get my printable love poem background in the box below.
If you can’t find this sign at Dollar Tree or you want to use a different one, you can create your own background in Microsoft Word. Go under File -> Page Setup and choose landscape mode. Measure the inner dimensions of your sign (inside the “framed” edges). Go to Insert -> Text Box to create a text box in Microsoft Word that’s an inch smaller in height and width than your sign. Then copy and paste the poem or whatever text you’d like to use into that box and justify the text to make it stretch from one edge of the text box to the other. Choose a font and play with the font size until the text fills up the entire box. Under Format -> Paragraph you can also play with the line spacing to get it to fill your box. You can add in spaces along the last line to make it fit better as well. Once you like how it looks, print it out onto card stock or heavy weight paper. Carefully trim around the text, taking just a little off at a time, until it fits right inside the framed edges of the sign.
Paint the Word Cutout
You’ll want to start by paintng your wooden word cutout. I painted the word red for Valentine’s day, using cheap acrylic craft paint and a cheap foam paintbrush. One coat of paint is probably sufficient. You can use a hair dryer to speed to drying if you’d like.
Adhere the Background
While the paint is drying, you can begin assembling your sign. Make sure the background is printed out and trimmed to the correct size, then you can adhere it to the sign. I used a tape runner on the back of my paper. I ran it all the way around very close to the edge, and then also added rows of tape across the middle. Then I place it inside the framed edge of the sign and pressed it down to adhere.
Put it all Together
The rest is super easy! Use whatever adhesive you’d like to glue the wooden word to the center of your sign (I used the same tape runner). Finally, cut one end of the twine that’s used to hang the sign from the back and string wood beads on it. Thread it back through the hole and tie it in a knot. You’ll want to use hot glue or another kind of glue to secure the twine of the back of the sign. Once that’s dry, your DIY Valentine’s Day sign is ready to display.
DIY “Love” Sign
Supplies
- Wooden Sign 7.5 x 11.75 inches
- Wood Beads
- Wood "Love" cutout
- Paint + Paintbrush
- Printed Text Background
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Instructions
- Paint the wood word cutout and allow it to dry. You can use a hair dryer to speed the drying process.
- Download and print the text background from the blue box in the post, if you are using the same sign I used. If not, see the tip below to learn how to create your own text background. Print it on card stock or other heavy weight paper.
- Trim the text background so it fits your sign.
- Use adhesive on the back to adhere the text background to the sign.
- Adhere the word to the center of the sign. String beads onto the twine used to hang the sign and secure the twine in back with hot glue.
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