Christmas time is fast approaching and that means decorating my home for the season. If you love decorating with little Christmas signs like I do, you’ll love this easy DIY Christmas sign craft. And it could easily be used as an ornament for your Christmas tree. So let’s jump right in and get started. Look for decor ideas for the signs at the end of the blog post.
Here is a list of what you will need:
- Dollar Tree 4X6 stretched canvas
- Letter stencils
- White and black acrylic paint, and paint brush
- Twine
- X-acto knife
- Scissors
- Glue gun
- Small embellishments, optional
The first step, as with any reverse canvas project, is to remove the canvas from its frame using your X-acto knife. Turn the canvas over so the back is facing you. Then you cut the canvas by running the blade along the outer edge of the frame, just outside of the staples. Once you cut all the way around, the canvas should be easily removed.
If you want, you can remove the staples using pliers. I chose to just leave them because they will be covered up on the back of the sign.
Next, using your scissors, remove the outer part of the canvas by trimming just inside of the crease line.
The next step is to paint your canvas black. Be sure to paint the side that has primer and not the unfinished side. You can leave a little space around the outer edge without paint, it will be hidden under the frame when you are finished. The black canvas becomes your “blackboard.”
Then you will paint the entire frame with white acrylic paint, leaving the side with staples as-is.
When the black paint is dry, it is time to stencil a word on your sign. I chose JOY because the size of the canvas limits me to only 3 to 5 letters at most. I found these adhesive letter stencils at Michael’s. They sure do make stenciling easier with the adhesive on the back. Using white paint for my “chalk”, I stenciled the O first, so I could easily center the word JOY. When the paint was dry, I then stenciled the J and Y at the same time. Make sure you leave some space for the frame around the outer edge of your “chalkboard.” If you have good penmanship, you could always use a white paint pen instead of using stencils, and write your own message or even personalize your sign.
When all the paint has dried, your sign is ready to be assembled. I first took a length of twine and made a hanger from it by gluing each end to the top corners on the back side of the sign. This step is optional.
The next step is to carefully glue your canvas to the back of the frame. Using your glue gun, run a small amount of glue around the entire back side of the frame, then place the canvas face down on it. Then to finish the back, I glued another length of twine around the back of the frame.
Turn your sign over and it is almost finished. Yay! The only step left is to add embellishments of your choice. I chose a piece of buffalo check ribbon, a little pine cone, red berries, and a sprig of Christmas greens.
I think this mini faux chalkboard sign turned out super cute, so I made a few more. I plan on using these signs as ornaments on my Christmas tree, but there are so many other uses for them. You can use them to decorate a tiered tray, or in a Christmas wreath. They can be used as a shelf sitters or added to a Christmas gift as an extra embellishment. I think one would look cute hung on a window or mirror using a suction cup. So many ideas!
I hope I’ve inspired you to try making your own mini chalkboard sign using the reverse canvas method.
Merry Christmas and Happy Crafting!
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