How to Make Your Own Signs of Spring

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I bought up all of the wooden signs they had at 90% off at Dollar General after Christmas. ($.10 each!!!) I wanted to do something fun with them, so I decoupaged this one. You can do it too! Totally easy. The steps are as follows.

1. Paint the sign all white. It doesn't have to be perfect because you will be covering it. The white paint just covers the ugly stuff that was already on the sign so it doesn't show through the fabric, paper and tissue paper you are going to decoupage on the sign. Let it dry.

2. Gather any old scraps of scrapbooking paper, newspaper, magazines, fabric, etc. that you have. Gift wrap and tissue paper work well too. Rip the scraps to the approximate size of the sign. I ripped a bunch to fit vertically. Some scraps were small so I just left them the way they were.

3. Get your bottle of glue out. I used Eileen's in the brown bottle. It is nice because it is drier and therefore dries faster than some other glues. Do a quick layout of where you want your scraps to go. I just did them haphazardly, but you could do them in stripes or in a specific pattern.

4. Start gluing!

5. Cut a branch and a bird from a scrap of plain paper or fabric. I did so many different patterns that I wanted the bird to show up. If you can't draw, here is a pattern that you can print and trace onto your paper.

6. Next add a ribbon bow to the wire hanger, glue some cute little doo-dads that you might have in your scrapbooking or papercrafting supply. Little ribbons, flowers and gems, and brads are nice. I also used an inkpad and inked the edge of the bird. I had some scrolls made of chipboard so I used one for his wing. These chipboard elements are great and you can find them at your Family Dollar if you have one. (Cheep! Cheap!)

7. Next, I took some indoor clear varnish that I had sitting around and applied two coats to the whole thing. It really pulled it all together. The whole thing is shiny. Let it dry after each coat.

8. Hang it up and be proud!

Other signs of Spring....The boy... home from school again.