Things I've Made Archives - Page 8 of 136 - Ashley Hackshaw / Lil Blue Boo

How to Make Old Signs: Vintage Inspired Circus Sign

January 15, 2016 by Ashley Hackshaw

Have you ever wanted to know how to make old signs for home decor? It adds so much to a blank wall with very little effort. I’ve always wanted an antique circus sign but every sign I’ve ever come across was way out of my price range. So I decided this one:

Instead of using a plain piece of wood I repurposed two old drawer fronts. They made the perfect wood panel. I just used wood filler to plug up where the drawer pulls had been:

They are just attached at the back:

For the lettering I made a template using circus-inspired font:

You can use my template if you like (just print the letters one at a time if needed so they fit onto smaller paper and then tape together):

Chalk transfer paper makes the lettering easy to trace!

The words “ticket office” were added underneath:

I love painting with liquid gilding…this is the gold color from Martha Stewarts line, found at Michaels:

I love how smoothly it goes on :

For the red paint I used Golden Liquid Acrylics:

I brushed the outer edges with some liquid gilding as well to give it an aged look:

I love that the drawers gave it an instant framed look:

The finished sign:

I love the touch of the liquid gilding:

Here’s what it looks like in our kitchen! The old phone was from my childhood home:

If you want to make your own lettering Font Space has some great free fonts available! (click here for circus category)

More vintage inspired signs I’ve made with tutorials:

DIY Rustic Palette Sign:

Vintage-inspired Round Railroad Signs:

And an oldie but goodie…

How to Antique and Age Wood:

If you don’t have wood and want to use canvas I have a tutorial for that too!

And you can find all my other home decor tutorials here!

How to Make Round Vintage Signs

September 27, 2015 by Ashley Hackshaw

My most recent project for the depot, other than the picket fence and raised garden, has been to paint vintage railroad signs as “flare” for the outside:

I started with these stain grade edge glued round table tops from Lowe’s as the canvas:

The first thing I did was paint each table top with a coat of primer:

Because the table tops are round it’s hard to create a grid for measurements. I used a large piece of contractor’s paper to create a round template the size of each table top to make it easy to find the center and to mark quarter and half marks:

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I enlarged text in Powerpoint and printed it off as a template. I used newspaper to transfer my design. If you trace and press hard enough the newspaper ink will transfer to the wood:

I used acrylic craft paint to carefully paint in my designs:

Here’s a Santa Fe sign:

On reason I chose that sign is that our house overlooks the Bryson City train depot and the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad has an old Santa Fe caboose….it was built in 1942 and rebuilt in 1970. It’s a class Ce-2 which you can read more about here.

For the large railroad crossing sign I marked the center of the wood using my paper template and then used a ruler to mark the outside border all the way around:

I printed off a large “R” to use as a letter template:

I painted the yellow background first:

And then the black parts:

I love the large scale of the RR sign:

The old depot was part of the railroad in Canton, NC so I wanted to use a sign from its roots. The Southern Railroad would have been the railroad whose locomotives used this building. I used a small paintbrush to carefully write each letter:

And the finished sign:

After all the signs were completely dry I put a few coats of polyurethane on them to protect them from the outdoor weather:

So far I’ve painted three but I’m working on a handful of other ones:

You can use this technique to make any sign that is circular:

You can follow along real time at @lilblueboo on Instagram.

All the projects are indexed here:

Click here to read more about the Old Depot Project.

The Old Depot Project is sponsored by Lowe’s Home Improvement.

If you like using the round table tops for projects try this one out too!

How to Make Stamped Solder Pendants

April 2, 2015 by Ashley Hackshaw

This was such a fun project. I made all of these cute little pendants using plain old plumbing solder! I think they resemble wax seals or old coins as stamped solder:

Basic List of Materials (a little goes a long way):

TS4000 Bernzomatic Trigger Start Torch
MAP Fuel Canister (yellow)
1 Roll of Sterling Plumbing Solder (lead free)
1 Roll of Copper Picture Wire (18 Gauge)
Non-Asbestos Soldering Block
Lead-free Water-Soluble Flux
Rubber Craft Stamps (Postmarks)

Optional but Recommended:
Parchment Paper
Bon Ami Powder

Each pendant only requires a tiny bit of solder and a few inches of copper wire making it a very inexpensive project:

Here’s my TS4000 Bernzomatic Torch. It ignites with just a push of the button so it’s not scary or hard to use. Once you start torching…it’s kind of hard to stop!

The pendants are primarily made up of metal from melting this sterling plumbing solder:

To created the base of the pendant I used 18 gauge copper wire. Using pliers I created this “8” shape:

I use a non-asbestos soldering block to fire against. It can withstand the heat:

Brush a little bit of flux onto the copper wire. This will help the solder adhere to the wire:

Using the torch, carefully heat the solder so that drops of solder begin to fall into and around the copper circle. It doesn’t have to be precise. Once there’s enough solder to fill the circle let the piece cool. I put parchment paper underneath because it will catch any extra beads of solder that can also be reheated to create pendants:

Use the torch to remelt the solder. If you burn heat in a circular pattern around the edges the solder will shift towards the center into a circular glob: