Vintage Inspired 'Tomatoes' Sign

A vintage inspired 'tomatoes' produce sign.

After planting so many tomatoes this year, I felt like I needed a sign to go with them!

I saw some vintage produce signs & wanted to make my own!

Sign making is something I want to start doing more.  It's a huge learning curve for me, though!  Because I have no artistic skills whatsoever, I can't just paint the lettering on!  I have to use a cutting machine to cut the letters out for me!

I bought a Cricut a few years ago & have used it maybe a handful of times.  The Cricut is also another huge learning experience!  I really need to just sit down & read the million tutorials there are on it!  So far, I've only used i
t to create basic things, like this sign! 

Now, back to this vintage inspired sign!

To start, I took an old piece of wood that we already had.  I had my husband cut it down to the approximate sign I needed.  I had previously measured the height & was planning the lettering, so I knew the approximate length I needed.

Once the board was cut, it was time to paint!  I was originally just going to paint it & then trace around my letters & hand paint them with a paint pen.  That's why I painted my finished color first.  Then I realized there was an easier alternative--I could just paint the color I wanted the letters to be, put the letters on & then paint over them with my finished color.  So once I peeled the letters off, they would be the color I wanted!

I already had this red paint on hand & this was the first project I used it on.  I got it on clearance a long time ago & I was surprised at the coverage!  It went on great!

I used my signature white paint for my lettering coat.  I could have just painted where I wanted the letters to go, but I then decided to try to go for a layered paint look.  I wanted this sign to look old & layers of paint help with the aged look!

Then it was time for lettering!  I created my template in Canva.  I recently got a new computer, so I don't have a lot of fonts (lettering).  Canva has been such a tremendous help!  You can create almost anything with Canva!  The social media templates are great!  I created my Facebook cover using Canva!

For this project, I used the custom dimensions design to create the size of my sign.  Then I made the lettering.

After I was happy with my design, I saved it in a way that would work with Cricut Design Space, the program Cricut uses to cut out the design.  My cutting mat is 12inx12in so I had to move things around a little so it would cut right.

I cut my design out on vinyl & then I stuck the letters onto my board.  It's super tedious to get the lettering just right.  Luckily, I was going for a more vintage/handmade look, so it perfection wasn't needed!

After the letters were on the board, I painted the entire thing with my final color.  When the paint was still tacky, I gently removed the lettering.  My husband suggested using a knife to get under the lettering & it worked great!

I was expecting a lot of bleed through from the paint, but it was surprisingly very minimal.

It has the vintage & handmade look I was going for!  I enjoyed making that sign so much that I ended up making another one!  The new one will be coming to the blog next week!

Sign making is something I totally want to do more of!  I still have a lot to learn but it's been super fun so far!