Laundry Room Sign

Another one of my gifts that I made for my mom this Mother's Day was a really cute laundry room sign.  She moved into a super cute condo not too long ago, and has really done a lot with it since she has moved in, but it still needs some "homey" touches to make her really feel like it is her new home.  What better way to do that than to put pictures and crafts made by your daughter all around your house :)

I used a yellow fabric, combined that with brown vinyl lettering and enclosed it in a white antique looking frame (that washboard finish).  She has several pieces of furniture that she likes to stain the corners or give a washboard finish to which is why I decided to do the same on the frame.

Materials Needed:

Picture Frame 

Fabric

Enamel Paint

Vinyl

Skinny Ribbon

Paint Chips from Lowe's

Fine Black Pen

Hot Glue Gun

First take your frame and remove the glass and the back board.

Paint the frame with a couple coats of your desired color.  In order to give my frame a washboard, rough look, I used an Enamel paint which is supposed to be put on glass.  It didn't have the smooth texture that regular acrylic paint does.  The paint left a rough washboard texture which wasn't expected at first (I was going to sand down after I painted), but I didn't need to...the paint did all the finishing for me - so nice!!

Next, take your piece of fabric and the board that was in the picture frame and measure enough to cover the front.  I used a yellow and white checkered print that I had left over from a previous project. 



Before you start gluing your fabric to your board, make sure there are no visible wrinkles.  Heat up your iron if need be and give it a quick run over.  Once the fabric is nice and crisp, flip the board over (front side facing down on top of the fabric) and pull it taut as you glue the sides down to the back. 

I doubled up my yellow fabric since the board already had a fabric design on it, so I had to make sure both layers were glued down to the board.  For extra precaution, I ended up taping over the glued edges.

Vinyl comes next!  You can use your Cricut or Silhouette to cut out your saying in the vinyl.  I found a cute saying "The Laundry Room, loads of fun" looking around for inspiration for this project and decided I really liked the play on words with "loads" of fun.  I used my Cricut to cut out this saying.  I wanted to play with the size and shape of the letters, so I used the silhouette feature (which makes it bolder) for the words Laundry Room and cut them at 1 1/2 inch size.  For the words Loads of Fun, I didn't use any text features (normal) and cut them at a 1 inch size. 

Once the letters are cut out of the vinyl, apply transfer tape to help apply the letters to the glass.  Before applying, clean the glass and make sure to get all those finger prints and smudges.  Since I layered my words, I had to cut them out to the correct placement before using the transfer tape. 

With the vinyl in place, I felt the sign still needed a little something.  I thought it was cute, but it needed more to fill up some empty space and make it unique.  I thought about laundry and what it entails - clothes, washing, soap, drying, etc.  Then it came to me...I should make a clothes line across the bottom half of the frame!

To create the clothesline, find some skinny white ribbon or string and stretch it across the bottom half of your frame.  To attach the ribbon, take off the back board and the glass and flip the frame face down.  Use the edge where the glass sits on to glue down your ribbon.  This will allow the clothesline to lay outside of the glass and on the front of your sign.

Next comes the clothes!  I could have used my Cricut to cut out the clothing..I have the SCAL add on feature on my computer which lets you cut out pretty much any SVG files and play around with different features other than the straight forward lettering and images the cartridges give you.  However, mine is currently acting up and not working right, which I am not happy about but oh well, it made me be even MORE creative and improvise. 

Story Time:  My sister and I have an obsession with collecting paint chips from hardware stores.  My dad has worked construction for a long time, and when we were younger we always used to go with him.  Well instead of looking at wood and tools with him, we were drawn to the pretty colors of the paint chips.  We used to shove them in our pockets and bring some home to use in playing house and other fun games. 

Anyways, the reason for this mini story is that it drove my inspiration for the miniature clothes...make them out of paint chips!  I finally have a good reason to go to the hardware store and shove them in my pockets! I picked out some fun, spring colors mixed with some neutrals that would be common on clothes and brought them home.

You can find templates for doll clothing online to help you draw the clothes or you can free hand them.  I did a combination of both.  Trace a template for each clothing item on a different colored paint chip and cut them out.  I ended up making 5 items of clothing: t-shirt, shorts, jeans, a skirt and a dress.

Once they are all cut out, take a fine point black pen and add some detail to the clothing.  I added pleats to the skirt and dress, a pocket to the pants, and waistbands to the skirt, shorts and pants. 

I found these adorable mini clothes pins at Michael's and they were perfect for my clothesline.  Take the clothespins and pin the clothes to the line.  Now you have your own miniature clothesline!

Here is my mom with her new laundry sign on Mother's Day.  I will have to snap another picture of it up in her house next time I make it over there!

This has been one of my favorite projects to make, probably because of the fun miniature clothesline.  Hopefully this will help inspire future signs!!

Have a fabulous Tuesday!