Happy National Craft Month! All month long we are sharing easy-to-make craft ideas from home decor, like today’s “beach” sign by Jen Cushman, to party planning, mixed media, and more. Be sure to subscribe to our blog and follow us on Facebook to see more projects all month long.
Who doesn’t love the beach? Sand in your toes, waves lapping against the shore, happy kids squealing with glee, collecting sea shells.
The first time I saw Walnut Hollow’s Rustic Arrow, I knew it was the exact substrate (base) I needed for a DIY home decor sign pointing the way to beachy fun.
The hardest part about this project is waiting for the paint to dry! Come on, craft with me…
To create this “To The Beach” Sign, gather the following supplies:
- Walnut Hollow Rustic Arrow
- Liquitex Gesso in White
- Liquitex Basics acrylic paint in Light Blue
- Liquitex Basics acrylic paint in Black
- paintbush
- sandpaper
- hot glue gun
- shells
Paint your Rustic Arrow sign with a quick coat of white gesso and let dry. The rough-hewn pine slats are gorgeous for texture, but the wood sure soaks up paint. Putting down a quick coat of gesso will make it so the board takes a nice even coating of light blue paint in the next step.
Paint a coat of light blue paint onto the arrow and let dry.
Sand the edges to reveal some of the original wood for a weathered look.
Paint the word BEACH in the center of the arrow. If you don’t like your handwriting, you can easily use letter stickers or letter stencils that you can buy at your local craft store. (Optional) To make your letters “pop out” a little more from the background, mix a little bit of white gesso into a dab of black paint to make grey. Paint some grey shadows under the letters.
Add a picture hanger or wire onto the back of the sign.
Hot glue shells onto the Rustic Arrow.
This arrow can literally point anywhere. Don’t have a beach house? No problem, you can easily change the color palette to forest green and add some pine cones so it fits cabin decor. What about a sign for your son or daughter’s room? A sign for the pool house? The laundry? The possibilities are endless.
What sign would you create for your home?
Thanks for crafting with me today. I’d love for you to visit my blog and subscribe.
–Jen Cushman
Bio: Jen Cushman is a mixed-media artist, instructor, columnist and author of two books; “Making Metal Jewelry; How to Stamp, Form, Forge and Fold Metal Jewelry Designs” and “Explore, Create, Resinate; Mixed-Media Techniques Using ICE Resin”. Her art has been published in numerous national magazines. She writes a column called The Mixed Media Metalsmith for Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine and also a business advice column for Artists and Makers magazine.
walnuthollowcrafts 
Jen – We love your Rustic Arrow project! Fantastic!
Thanks so much Team Walnut Hollow. I have been wanting to use that arrow for a while now. Looking forward to my next project in a few weeks. Thanks for the opportunity to be part of your National Craft Month promotion!
This is so perfect. It is snowing here, but I am looking forward to a cruise next month. Of course by then the weather here will probably be great. I look forward to picking up some new sea shells.