Creating Hand-Lettered Wood Signs
Learn everything there is to know about creating wood signs! From purchasing your wood, to lettering, to shipping/pricing, this course covers it all!
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Elisabeth has been in love with handwriting and art for as long as she can remember! In September 2014 she found the perfect marriage of handwriting with a career when she discovered calligraphy. As a left-handed writer, learning and practicing calligraphy proved to be a difficult task when she could only find resources from right-handed writers. Since graduating from Seattle Pacific University in June 2015, she has been devoted to growing her full-time business, ElisaAnne Calligraphy, while creating resources for both left-handed and right-handed calligraphers who are just getting started. Some of her favorite freelance work includes creating custom wood signs, designing invitation suites, and creating logos! On a daily basis you will find her drinking tea, working on sketches for clients, practicing her penmanship, and doting on her cat and husband.
In August of 2016 I released a YouTube video about hand-lettering signs with paint pens. Since then, the video has since received more than 70,000 views! That video was only 12 minutes long and hardly covered any specifics for successfully making wood signs. I quickly realized there was a gaping hole when it came to finding resources on how to make wooden signs, whether it was for a wedding, personal use, or to sell to clients.
That’s why I’ve created "Creating Hand-Lettered Wood Signs"! Deciding what to include in this wood signs course has included a lot of thought and planning, and right now the course includes SIX different sessions that all range around the 30-minute mark. Some of the sessions had to be divided into parts so that I could cover all of the content! Below is a quick overview of what each session will include:
SESSION 1. Purchasing Your Wood
To start off, where do you need to buy your wood? I cover a couple different options & directly tell you exactly where I purchase my wood and why.
SESSION 2. Materials and Staining
This session will be a very comprehensive overview of the materials that I recommend and prefer to use, as well as the small nuances and differences in different types of sandpapers, stains, and paint pens. I've spent the past 2 years making nearly hundreds of wood signs, and all of that experimentation has allowed me to have an excellent understand of, simply, what works and what doesn't. This session will also teach you how to stain your wood signs!
SESSION 3. Design Layout
Creatives all approach design and layout a little differently when they are working on creating an art piece. Some people have a more "fluid" and "go-for-it" approach, while others like taking the time to measure things out and keep all the elements of their designs precise. I will be discussing how to layout your design for a wood sign first and then transfer it to a much larger scale! I will make sure to approach this topic in a way that appeals to both "go-for-it" creatives as well as "precision" creatives.
SESSION 4. Lettering Your Signs
This is the part that people are perhaps the most curious about! Knowing how to actually letter your sign and use your paint pen to its best advantage is extremely important for creating a beautiful and professional looking wood sign. I will cover how to get your paint pen to work, how to keep the ink flowing throughout the lettering process, and how many layers of ink you can expect to write on your wood sign to create an opaque design.
SESSION 5. Shipping Signs of All Sizes
This session will entirely cover the shipping process and what you need to do to ensure that your wood sign will ship safely, whether just one state away or across the country! Shipping materials, and the actual shipping process, can get extremely expensive, so I also talk about how to navigate the discussion of shipping price with your client.
SESSION 6. Pricing Your Signs
This is something that all creatives can probably agree that they struggle with; how in the world do you price your work and your wood signs? This session will cover what you should be charging for your work based on your material expenses, word count, and hands-on time for each individual sign. The goal of this session is to prepare you to be able to sell your signs to others and make a profit!
Hopefully, this helps you understand what I’ve included in the course and why it will definitely be a worth-while investment. I really hope to see you on the other side and I can’t wait to teach you more about wood signs!