Great Estate Sale Find

I found this primitive little dresser at an Estate Sale last month.   

It was only $20 which was a STEAL!

Handpainted Sign on the back of a CABINET door!

I recently bought a Silhouette Portrait. I was so excited until I opened it up and attempted to use it (without reading any directions). I have to say, I'm pretty computer literate and this thing is extremely intimidating for me. Needless to say, I could figure out how to cut letters - so I cut the letters I needed for the sign I have been wanting - and here is how it turned out.

 

I painted the back of a cabinet door black with craft paint and laid out my letters (cut from plain cardstock). I put a dab of glue under each letter to hold it in place, then I used a dauber and went over all the letters again in black. As soon as it was dry to touch, I used the dauber and went over the entire sign with the off white craft paint. I like the rough, shabby look, so I wasn't too concerned with getting it perfect. 

 

Once that was dry to touch I pulled the letters off. A couple of them were already stuck to the board in spots, so I left them as-is. Since this was my first project and I was admittedly intimidated by the Silhouette, I didn't use vinyl because of the cost. Once I got all the cardstock off that I could, I used fine grit sand paper and sanded away - this removed the remaining cardstock that was stuck in places. At that point I used an artists brush to touch up some of the letters and voila - done...

 

But....as I looked at it perched up on top of my kitchen cabinets I felt as though something was still missing. So I put three quarter sized dots of paint on a paper plate (Bleached Sand, Raw Sienna and Fawn) and dry brushed them across the sign, like this.

 

 

Now, that is exactly the look I was going for....Here's the finished sign. What do you think?

 

 
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