DIY Direction Sign

 

We recently opened our Airbnb and one of the things we wanted to offer our guests was a stress free experience. Our driveway splits so we wanted to be able to easily guide them to their destination: the cottage. I love how sophisticated this sign turned out and that it makes it so easy to navigate. This would be an amazing option for an event, party, or wedding as well!

Instructions from Sam! Hope this is helpful, let us know in the comments if you have any questions.


You will need:

Step one:

Firstly, you need to determine what size you want your sign to be.  For our sign, we went with 22.5 inches long and 3.5 inches wide.  Luckily, since we’re using a 1x4 board, it’s already 3.5 inches wide so no need to rip the board.  

Step two:

To determine the point on your sign, lay the board down flat and measure 19 inches from left to right.  Mark this measurement and use your speed square to draw a perpendicular line across the width of the board.  To the right of that line, on the end of the board, measure and mark the exact middle of the width (hint, it’s 1.75 inches).  Take a straight edge and draw a line from the mark you made at 19 inches to the mark you made at the middle of the board.  Eyeball the marks you made to ensure you’ve got a good looking point in the sign.


Step three:

Using a jigsaw, or carefully with a circular saw, cut along the lines you made.  Now you’ve got a sign to work with!  Let’s get it ready for paint.


Step four:

Start with 60 grit sandpaper and begin smoothing all sides of the sign taking care not to bare down too hard on any of the edges.  60 grit sandpaper can easily cut into your sign if you’re not careful.  After you’ve sanded with 60 grit, wipe down the sign and repeat the process with 120 grit sandpaper and finally 320 grit sand paper.  At this point, the sign should feel super smooth, almost like plastic.  We’re ready for paint!


Step five:

You can start the paint process off with primer if you’d like.  I didn’t (hopefully that’s not a mistake!).  I painted each side of the sign with 3 coats of paint, making sure the sign dried completely between coats.  Take care when you’re painting the edges of the sign; the paint tends to want to drip, so make sure you keep an eye on that.

To polyurethane or not to polyurethane.  I bought a can of semi gloss clear polyurethane to use on the project.  However, when I applied it to the white sign, the color immediately became dingy and looked like it had been in a smoker’s house for a decade.  Not the vibe.  I opted to not use polyurethane on the printed side of the sign.  This will probably shorten the overall life of the sign, but hopefully not by much.  Check back in 5 years.

Step six:

Let’s get our text worked out.  Open the graphic design program of your choice.  I used Canva.  First create a background of 19 inches wide by 3.5 inches tall, this is the rectangular portion of your sign excluding the point.  We incorporated a logo with our text, so the text box ended up being 17 inches wide.  Play around with your visual elements until they fill out the rectangle to your liking.  If you are not using an image with your sign, your text box can be the same size as your background. 


Step seven:

Once you’ve balanced out your text and / or logo, export the file as a .png file, and make sure your select transparent background.  We’re ready to move onto the print phase.


Step eight:

Open Cricut Design Studio and plug in your Cricut machine.  When you get into Cricut Design Studio, you’ll be asked several questions about layers, etc.  I’m a total Cricut newbie, so I can’t answer what options if best for what project, but the option I chose was single layer.  Import your design and ensure it is sized properly.  Depending on your Cricut machine, you’ll have several different options for print then cut, or cut only.  I did cut only.  


Step nine:

Make sure your machine is connected and click “go.”  Load your smart vinyl and when prompted, tell the machine you’re using smart vinyl.  The Cricut will automatically load your material and ensure it is long enough for the project.  Once the project it cut, click to eject the material, and your vinyl is cut. 


Step ten:

Start removing the excess vinyl, taking care not to accidentally cut or tear any of the pieces that should be together.  It is really helpful to have a craft pick or some other sharp object to help peel off the excess vinyl.  Take your time and go slow.


Step eleven:

Once you’ve peeled off all the excess vinyl, let’s get the transfer tape on.  This part can be very frustrating, so be careful, and take.your.time.  Star peeling the transfer tape and place it face down on your vinyl project.  Make sure you apply it straight, and make sure there are not any wrinkles or bubbles.  Go super slow and use a flat scraper tool.


Step twelve:

Once you’ve put down all of the transfer tape, use your scraper tool and burnish the transfer tape onto the vinyl.  Don’t be afraid to press hard, and burnish both sides of the transfer tape.  Now you’re ready to put the sticker onto the sign!


Step thirteen:

This is the most fun and rewarding part, but also where the whole thing can fall apart!  Be careful!  At this point, you can see the lettering through the clear tape, and the transfer tape has a transparent grid on it.  Use this to eyeball your sticker placement.  Once you feel like you know where you want the sticker to go, start on one end and begin placing the transfer tape onto the sign.  Go slow and do your best to avoid wrinkles and bubbles.  


Step fourteen:

Once the transfer tape and lettering is on the sign, use your scraper tool again to burnish the lettering onto the sign.  Carefully begin to peel the excess transfer tape off of the sign.  As you’re peeling, if some of the vinyl lettering starts to come off, place the tape back down onto the sign and re-burnish.  The key is to go slow.  I had an issue where it didn’t matter how hard I burnished, some of the vinyl stuck to the transfer tape.  I used my craft pick to help peel the vinyl from the transfer tape and manually place it onto the sign.  Not idea, but it had to be done.  Again, go slow and do what you have to do to make it work.  You’ll get there.


Step fifteen:

Now you have a sign!  When you’re installing it onto your stake, I used the dimensions of the rectangle (19 inches) to center the sign, not the full 22.5 inches.  It looked off balance if I used the full length of the sign.

Happy sign making! This was a very satisfying weekend project. We also installed a solar powered landscape light so that if guests arrive after dark, it is nicely lit.


 
airbnb, our home, the farmlesley grahamdiy, direction sign, parties, wedding, the cottageComment