How To Make A Home Office Sign

Hello everyone, this is Cinnamon here and today I want to show you how I created this home office sign. Like many of us out there, I have been trying to convert a place in my home into an area that I can work efficiently. I felt like I needed a sign to remind me that I am at work to discourage me from lollygagging and taking multiple trips to the fridge.

Here are the supplies that I had on hand for this project.

Materials needed

• Basswood strip
• Hole puncher or drill if needed
• Creative Paperclay®
• Thick stencil
• Twine, ribbon, or string
• Acrylic paint
• Metal ruler
• Masking tape
• Exacto knife

I started out by doing a rough sketch with the stencil on the wood to figure out what wording would fit on the space that I had available.

Once the lettering was set up with the space that I wanted to use, I trimmed the excess wood off with my exacto knife. Next I began to create my letters with the stencil. I chose to push the clay into the stencil to create the letters and carefully remove them instead of allowing them to dry in the stencil.  Either way would be fine, just keep a close eye on how the clay dries. The clay has a tendency to warp when it is in thin sheets.

Since I have a really thin piece of Basswood, I am able to use a plain old hole puncher to get my holes into it. If the wood that you are using is too thick, opt for using a drill to get the holes into it.

While the letters are drying, paint your piece of wood the color that you would like it to be. I decided to paint over the pencil instead of using an eraser.

This is how the letters dried. If your letters warped upwards, you can dab a drop of water on the back and put something with a little weight on top to help flatten them down while it dries again.

When the letters were completely dry, I used a sanding stick to smooth out some of the edges.

I looped a piece of masking tape and painted the letters on to the top layer to keep them from moving around.

When the letters dried I used wood glue to paste them onto the piece of wood. You can also use plain old white school glue, either one works.

I wanted to draw a nice border around the sign, to pull that off I used masking tape like you would use painter's tape. I knew that masking tape wouldn't interfere with the layer of paint underneath and it was the only tape I had on hand.

After the top layer of paint is dry, move on to adding the string that you will use to hang outside of your door. I wanted the sign to be a bit playful, so I turned a few of the letters backwards and made sure to not follow any straight lines with their placement. 

Thank you all once again for stopping by, and I hope that you enjoyed today's tutorial! You can find Creative Paperclay® at the following retailers Creative Paperclay® Online Store, Michael's, Amazon, Joann's.

See more of my work at Melandolly.com and be sure to catch updates on my Instagram page! 

Be Well, Stay Safe and Stay Home if you can!