Birthday Project #3: DIY Fun to be One Sign

I wanted something that I could put outside that would help people narrow down our house when they arrived for Brooklyn’s party.  About half of the people had not been to our house yet and it’s in a corner by a fire hydrant, so it’s hard to tell by where the cars are parked.

I saw a cute idea on pinterest (shocker!) and decided I could make it at home with supplies I already had!  It was super easy and looked great.  I wish it hadn’t been windy so the balloons could have just floated above it, but it still turned out great anyway.

Total Cost:

Approximately $0, (cardboard, paint, wood stake all on hand)

Supplies:

Cardboard

White paint

Pink paint

paintbrush

stencils

pencil

wood stake

staple gun

Instructions:

1. First you need to cut out your piece of cardboard.  I used one side of the Evenflo carseat we had just bought Brooklyn.  It was the perfect size.
2. Using the cardboard colored side, paint the piece of cardboard white.  It took 2 -3 coats of white paint to cover so that no cardboard color showed through.
3. Let the paint dry.  The cardboard warped a little on me as it dried, but don’t worry, it won’t matter once you staple it to the wooden stake.
4. Next, I created stencils by just printing them at home using cardstock.  I picked a font I liked and made the letters for “fun” and “one” size 450.  I printed them out on cardstock.
5. Then I made the letters for “to be” in size 360. You don’t want it to be too small to see, but I wanted it to be enough that you eye noticed the size difference. You want “Fun” and “One” to stand out.  I also printed them on cardstock.
6. Cut out the letters so that you have a stencil for each letter.
7. Eyeball (or measure if you’re OCD) where to place your letters on the sign.  Then use your stencil and trace the letter using a pencil.
8. Remove your stencil and look at the placement of your words.  If they look good, move on to step 9.  If you need to adjust spacing or location, erase the pencil and repeat step 7.
9. Using a small paintbrush and pink paint, fill in the letters.
10. Let the paint dry.
11. Once the paint has dried, use a staple gun to attach the sign to a wooden stake.  Stake the sign in the yard.

NOTE:  For added decoration I blew up some pink and gold balloons (though in the picture they look yellow) and attached them to the sign as well using a staple gun.