Get your garden crafts started with this distressed garden sign. Easily distress wood with stain and paint to make a unique yard sign.

Distressed Garden Sign

Spring has arrived, and that means people are out in their yards and gardens preparing for the growing season. Add a little whimsy to your garden this year with a cute hand-painted and distressed garden sign.

If you’re in the DIY mood, get inspired with easy outdoor projects for your porch or garden – like these Plastic Spoon Garden Markers, DIY wooden spoon plant markers and a galvanized pail planter.

Supplies Needed:

Unfinished wood sign – You can easily make some with pallet wood, or find a variety of unfinished wood options at your local craft store.
Dark wood stain – I used Jacobean, but anything will work
Sandpaper
White acrylic craft paint
Paintbrush
Teal outdoor acrylic paint
Foam pouncer
Cutting machine (Cricut or Silhouette) and this Please Grow template

Tutorial: Distressed Garden Sign

In a well-ventilated area, use a foam brush or old rag to stain the entire sign. Wipe away any excess stain and let dry. Once completely dry, lightly sand the sign to smooth out the wood grain. It’s OK if the stain is not even.

Using a dry brush (lightly dip the brush in paint and dab off excess) begin painting the sign.

You don’t want complete coverage. Instead, use as dry of a brush as possible, and paint back and forth multiple times, to create partial coverage, or a “distressed” look.

Let the white paint dry, and then lightly sand the sign, especially around the edges.

Using your cutting machine cut out the “please grow” words on regular vinyl. You can use this template here. This is your stencil.

Place the vinyl stencil over the painted wood sign. Smooth the vinyl thoroughly over the ridges of the wood.

Load the foam pouncer with outdoor acrylic paint. Using a straight up-and-down motion, paint over the stencil. This will minimize paint bleed.

While the paint is still a bit tacky, peel the vinyl stencil at a 45-degree angle.

Let the paint dry completely before displaying your new distressed garden sign outside.

In this tutorial, I painted the words “please grow” on the little wooden sign, but you can get creative and choose any words you like – names of vegetables or fun sayings.

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