Wooden block signs seem to be the latest fad for holiday decorating, but why bother spending your hard earned money when you can just make it yourself?
Today we’re giving you the scoop on this DIY that’s impossible not to nail! And listen to this: it takes almost no time. Anyone can do it! And you’ll likely already have all the materials in your house. Oh, and did we mention they’re REVERSIBLE? So you can get two different holiday season's use out of them!
Check out our simple 5 step DIY block sign tutorial below.
What You Will Need:
- Paint brush
- Wood pieces
- Paint
- Paint markers (optional, but highly recommended)
STEP 1. Plan your design
Technically, we’re making two crafts here: the letter blocks and sign blocks. So it’s important to plan what each of your blocks are going to say so you have enough letters. As you can see above, I spent some time trying to plan out what words I wanted my block signs to spell out!
Also make sure not to use the same block for each holiday, since you’re only going to see one side at a time! So for example, you might put Halloween words on one side and Christmas on the other. You can also make blocks that say generic words that aren’t specific to any holiday (family, love, peace, etc), if you want to use them all year long!
STEP 2. Cut wood
I used leftover 2x4s I found in my garage and then had someone help me cut them with a saw. For the individual letters we cut random lengths vertically, so each one looks unique. I didn’t measure anything. Just eyeball it! For the full words, I also cut random vertical lengths. Then I cut them in half horizontally. Don’t worry about looking perfect- that’s part of the beauty!
STEP 3. Paint wood block base
For this I used leftover white primer from painting a room in my house and it worked perfect. White is going to be the easiest to see the letters with, but feel free to use whatever color you like! If you don’t have house paint, I’d recommend acrylic. DO NOT use tempura. I tried that and it doesn’t work. Make sure to paint all sides since these are going to be reversible! Let this dry and then move on to step 4!
STEP 4. Decorate letter blocks background
For this you can use a paintbrush or the paint markers. I always recommend paint markers when doing details of any sort because it’s a million times easier. But if you don’t have them or prefer a brush, go for it!
I alternated red and green designs for the background of my Christmas letters, and then orange and green for my Halloween letters. Feel free to use as many colors, patterns, or designs as you like! Let this dry and then move on to your last step!
STEP 5. Add letters
This step is pretty self-explanatory. Just make sure you have enough room to fit your words! I have several in my trash that say “sweater weather” because I didn’t pay attention to spacing (#fail). Again, the paint pens work best here but a brush will easily do the job.
And there you have it! Cheap, easy, quick, and nearly impossible not to succeed! You can use these to decorate your house or make them as a great gift!
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io games says
Really great tutorial
YupGames says
This is such a cute and budget-friendly project! I never thought about making reversible block signs before. Definitely going to try this for my next holiday setup — thanks for the inspiration!