Cemetery, no dumping!

I was looking for a fun addition to my tombstones as well as a way to hide the floodlights that shine on them and decided a sign could do both.  The sign essentially is built as a box with 1x4s and luan.  The depth will give the lights something to rest in.  

Now the tough part, lettering.  In the tombstone tutorial I painted names by masking off a word with stick-on letters, painting over them, picking off the stick-on letters, and letting the undercoat show through.  With the signs, I did a more traditional masking.  I printed the name on several sheets of paper and taped them together into a banner.  Then it's time to XACTO cut them out.  Choose a font with lots of straight lines and use a straight edge to cut, that will make this tedious process easier.  Then spray your stencil with spray mount and let it dry for about a minute.  You want the stencil to be tacky so that it stays down but doesn't permanently adhere to the paint.  

As adhered as I thought the stencil was, I still had overspray issues and soft edges (you really have to press the stencil down.)  Sadly enough, the green I had used was spray paint so I couldn't easily touch it up.  The solution: I used a little black paint and a brush to paint in wherever I had oversprayed, and the looks was so cool I continued applying black with a brush and sea sponge until the entire sign looked weathered and dirty.  

Damn vandals!  I had to put a little humor into the sign, and yes, every drip was intentional. I will have more pictures of the entire set up after this weekend.  And if you need to paint words on anything, try this easy technique or cutting out a stencil and using a little spray adhesive to hold it on.  The professional results you can get are pretty amazing.