I wanted signs in our wedding shots after seeing other couples holding adorable homemade signs. That and I thought they would be a great picture for thank you cards.
I made the following signs: Thank you (we could print these for the front of thank you cards), LOVE (because who doesn’t love LOVE?), and the simple but classic symbol.
This is the current decor for the top of our low bookshelf. I love reusing items from my projects!
A few tips I learned along the way:
1. Use cardstock. I rushed and printed signs for our photobooth on plain paper and they were pretty floppy in photos.
2. Bold and increase your font whenever possible. It looks large on the screen, but won’t look large in your hand.
3. Don’t be confined to a single sheet. You can always have your design overlap pages and cut it out later.
4. Printing on cardstock would be ideal, but if you want to cut out individual words or letters, read below.
5. Play around with fonts and see what works well (if you’re cutting out the words like me, scripts are definitely harder!) There are tons of free fonts at sites like dafont and 1001Freefonts
Start with this…
Here were my materials:
- Heavy (gold or whatever other color) cardstock
- Exacto knife
- Printed sign
- Newspaper (to act as a pad underneath your cardstock)
- Glue Stick
- Scissors
Follow these steps:
1. Design words in MS Word or Powerpoint. Remember to print it out to get an actual feel for size and dimensions. FYI, the “LOVE” letters are Calson Initials font, font size 300. The “Thanks” is Coventry Garden font, font size 250.
2. Cut a wide outline of words/shape with scissors.
3. Paste words/shape onto back of cardstock. Line the bottom of cardstock with newspaper to protect your cutting surface.
4. Perforate the entire outline of the words/shape with the Exacto knife. This helps make the cutting easier later and guides the shape.
5. Cut out the words/shape with the Exacto knife.
6. Have fun with your signs!
It would have been a lot easier if the words were printed directly on the signs, but I still loved them. That and I guess I didn’t mind an afternoon of cutting. But I am happy that these signs are durable (I plan on getting them framed or at least save them in my scrapbook.
Have you taken part in any time consuming projects that you still loved?
Wow! This is amazing. I do love art and craft projects but none that I can think of from the top of my head. But your ideas sounds implementable. Going to give it a try!
Those turned out great! I actually like the loose letters because they are so different. And the heart is adorable too! Thanks for the tutorial.
Now this is what I call personalized. Brilliant.
So cute, such a great idea – makes it more personalized 🙂
Great idea, and the pictures look great! I used a “love” parasol on our wedding day, and we got some of our favorite shots with it.
What a fun project!
How cute, love this!
They turned out great! I love this idea too!
I LOVE these sweetie! Great job! You totally blow me away with your creativity. It must be a relief to have them done 🙂
Ooh, I LOVE this DIY! Sadly, I don’t think mine would come out looking nearly as stunning as yours!! 🙂
Genius. And I love the wedding dress photo’d. Too pretty.
Rachael
they turned out great, and love the pics too;;)
This is an awesome idea!!! Love, love, love these!!!
New to your blog, so stop by some time!!
XOXO
kiki
Really, really pretty. I never even thought about cutting out the words, and the gold looks great against your dress.
I have a lot of time consuming projects that I still love, many of which were for our wedding too!
Oh, really cool! I love this idea, you did a great job! XO!
too cute – love this idea!
LADY is that you as a bride? DIVINE dress!
What a great idea! I’m sure the recipients loved getting a photo of you two!
You’re right, who doesn’t love LOVE? These are great ideas! I’m suprised I haven’t ever seen this before. More pics please!!
Time consuming projects that I love? Yes, times 100. haha.
Your signs are so cute though, and I’m sure everyone loved getting those photos!
Chic on the Cheap
They are so cute. And YAY for photos – even blurry cropped ones!
CUTE!!!
i did something similar except my sign was made using a stencil i made. it was tedious but it turned out great.
way cute!! i love it when couples hold up “thank you” signs in photos, i love the font you used too!
This is a GREAT do it yourself.
It looks lovely. I’m soooooooooo happy for you!
Best wishes from one blogger to another,
~Zabrinah
i LOVE the signs. and what’s even better is that you reuse them over the bookshelf. i’m trying to come up with a fun place for my chalkboard word bubbles.
Love these signs! I have been drawing little pictures for postcards. Feeling like I need a good project (something with a clear beginning and end) lately… You have so many great ideas!
these ARE fabulous. i need a good project.