Everyone knows that weddings are expensive! I experienced this first hand when planning my wedding for last October. You really have to save money anywhere you can. You know I love crafting and saving money-so I got to work. I really wanted to have some rustic looking custom wood signs around the venue.

I decided to make our own signs to save on some money. I knew I could use this great DIY method to make my own awesome looking sign. This simple technique will give you professional looking results for a fraction of the cost! This sign for our wedding cost me less than $10 to make.

That being said… this isn’t the easiest DIY out there. I make DIYs all the time that I say anyone can do- but I don’t think ANYONE could do this one. I’m not trying to discourage you, just letting you know it will still take some fine motor skills. But if you’re up for the challenge, the results will absolutely make it worth it!

So let’s get to the technique!

Tools to make your DIY custom wood signs:

• Wood sign (I got mine at Michael’s, but here is a similar one and here is another)
• Printer (I love my brother printer!)
• Ballpoint pen
• Masking tape
• Paint (Here is a single white, but this is the set I have)
• Small paintbrush (this set looks nice)

Step One: Print your words in your desired font and size

This should be your easiest step (unless you take as much time to pick out fonts as me!). Just print out your words in the font, layout, and size you want them on your sign.

If you are a bit of a messier painter, try going with a brush script like Bakery or Freeland. Neater fonts are harder to fill in- mistakes will show more.

The fonts I used are Goodlife Script and Typnic Tilted.

If you want you can cut around the words to position them where you want them to be on the sign. Use masking tape to tape them onto the sign where you want them to go.

Step Two: Trace your letters with a pen

After taping your printed words where you want them to be, trace the edges with a ballpoint pen. You don’t need to press very hard, but you should use decent pressure. This will leave outlines for you to fill in.

Step Three: Fill in with paint

The last thing to do is paint! I did two or three coats.You can see in the picture below that your tracing will leave nice lines that you can just fill in. It’s easier than it sounds.

Step Four: Hang and enjoy!

And enjoy your wallet being just slightly heavier and your hands just slightly messier :)

I don’t know about you, but I love crafting. In the weeks leading up to our wedding it totally helped me de-stress. I just turn on a podcast and get to work. Focusing on the detail work is really meditative. There’s a reason adult coloring is so popular!

I did end up improvising and painting a bit out of the lines on some of the letters. I accidentally taped my words down on a slight angle, so I had to correct them to straighten them out. So really make sure your letters are straight before you start tracing!

The sign was wonderful at our wedding! Here it is on our dessert table.

There are so many different applications for this DIY! Wood signs also make a great gift or fun decor project for the house.

I actually used this technique a few weeks after our wedding to make a gift for my good friend who got married. I made them a sign with their new last name to hang in their new place. It has such a different look from the sign I made for our wedding, and it uses the same technique!

I’ve actually kept our wedding hashtag sign and I plan to hang it in our craft room/ office. That is if I ever get done unpacking in there! But that’s a topic for another day…

This technique is so reliable, and the applications are literally endless- so get out there and make yourself some custom wood signs!

Supplies Used In This Post

The post DIY Custom Wood Signs appeared first on Pins and Procrastination.

Lars and I just sent out our save the dates this week. I think they turned out just adorable! If you haven’t already seen our engagement photos, they came out fabulous thanks to Beale and Wittig Photography. I pretty much credit them for how cute the save the dates are, because they’re all about the photo.

So I had my heart set on making pop-up save the dates. I saw the cutest one on pinterest. After reading a bunch of tutorials on how to make pop up cards I decided I didn’t have the time or patience to make 150 of them. So I had to move on to my next cutest save the date idea.

Well, I saw an adorable page a day calendar save the date on Pinterest. (I am trying to find the link but I seem to have lost it- so if you find it let me know!) It is such a simple idea. I know that I could design it quickly and we could get them printed and sent easily.

The mistake that I made was thinking that you could send postcards of any size. Apparently there are standard sizes for postcards and you have to pay differently if they are an unusual size. So we ended up sending them in envelopes. It ended up being better anyways because everyone will receive them in better condition than if they had been envelope-less.

So I designed our save the dates on photoshop elements. Honestly, the design is so simple, I could have made it on paint. I used to make stuff on paint all the time back in the days that I still had a pc.

We printed our cards with Premium Cards. The quality is excellent and they were great to work with. They emailed me to let me know my mini-calendar was too pixelated and let me fix it before they were printed.

To make the cards all you need is a good picture, a black rectangle, some cute fonts, and a month calendar. Below you can find a basic template, and all the fonts we used. The template will work on photoshop or photoshop elements. You will have to download the fonts, which is super easy. And I will warn you- once you realize how easy it is- you might get a font addiction like I have.

Just click the template image below to download the free photoshop template:

As for the fonts, you can download them each here:

October 24, 2015

Typo Slab Serif

Save The Date

Janda Elegant Handwriting

Susie + Lars • Are Getting Married • Chicago, IL

Mrs Eaves Small Caps

I hope you enjoy our adorable save the dates! I certainly do!

The post DIY Page a Day Calendar Save the Dates appeared first on Pins and Procrastination.

Lars and I wanted our engagement photos to be meaningful, so we picked some locations that were special for us. We did the first half of the photos at Middlefork Savannah, which is where we had our first date. The second half are at Lake Forest College, where we met and went to school together. How lucky for us that they happen to be two incredibly beautiful and inspiring locations for photos!

We had so much fun taking pictures with Nancy. She did such a good job capturing candid and posed photos. Lars and I both love the pictures because we think they captured our personalities and how much we love each other.

So, I hope you enjoy looking at these amazing photos!

The post Our Engagement Photos appeared first on Pins and Procrastination.