Can you believe we have already made it to the third week of our Deck the Home holiday blog hop?!?! Christmas will be here before we know it! As with the past weeks, we have a theme this week: Wood Sign. I am very familiar with making wood signs (check out my Etsy shop for proof of that!) but this week I wanted to go outside my comfort zone and make something larger and a little different than all the other signs I have done. And I wanted to make something to hang in our master bedroom over our bed that would fit well with the holidays. So I created a DIY rustic wood Christmas sign!
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Materials Needed for a DIY Rustic Wood Christmas Tree Sign
- Wood planks and trim (size will depend on what dimensions you want your sign to be)
- Wood glue
- Clamps
- Brace plates
- White Chalk Paint
- Green Paints in various shades
- Cricut stencil vinyl
- Cricut transfer paper
- Cricut Scraper
- D Ring Picture Hanger
- Picture Hanging Wire
I wanted this to be a large sign and since we have a queen-size bed and I wanted to hang it over the back of the bed I wanted the sign to just be proportional to the bed width. I couldn’t find one whole piece wood that was big enough so I ended up attaching several boards together to create the width that I wanted (I found these in my parents’ barn). I used wood glue to attach the boards together and used clamps to hold it in place for 24 hours to dry.



After the glue was dry we did end up using brace plates to reinforce the boards so that they stayed together. Justin attached two of the brace plates together because the screws were too long and would stick out the other side once screwed in.

Once this was together I painted the entire surface with my favorite white chalk paint, although any type of paint you have should work for this.

Now it was time to prep the stencils. I have always been fond of the wood Christmas tree signs that can be found all over Etsy and Pinterest so I created my own. I wanted the entire sign to be painted instead of using vinyl letters so I used the Cricut stencil vinyl to create my own stencils. Cricut Design Space has a variety of tree designs but I picked three that looked like different tree varieties. I then created the lettering and listed different types of Christmas trees as part of the sign, these are actual Christmas tree varieties that are grown here in Oregon. (Fun fact: Did you know that Oregon is the #1 producer of Christmas trees in the US!)

Once you cut out your stencil you will weed out the lettering (this is opposite of what you normally think to do when using vinyl) and then attach the transfer paper over the top of the stencil. So when you go attach your stencil to your surface you will peel off the thicker cardboard, place the stencil on the surface and then peel off the transfer paper before starting to paint.

I wanted all the wording to be in green and grey so I laid down the stencils and sponged the paint onto the board and let it slightly dry before removing the stencils. Stencil painting tip: Use a paper plate to off-load your paint before starting to sponge. This helps the paint not leak out and under the stencil. Another tip when using the stencil vinyl: Press down the vinyl stencil before painting with a Cricut Scraper.


After the paint was all dry we created a frame using scrap wood trim pieces that we found in our barn. I did not stain or treat the trim wood as I liked the way it looked already. Justin pre-drilled holes and then screwed each side to the board.


We used two “D” ring hooks on the back for hanging with gallery wire tied between them to hang on the wall.


And now I have a beautiful sign for our bedroom to bring the holidays into our small master bedroom, with a couple of other holiday touches to come soon!


Very pretty sign and I really like the 3 types of Christmas trees. I always go with the fat wide trees like the one in the middle. I need to make a Christmas tree sign now.
Love the rustic feel of the sign!! The entire thing is perfect!!
Love the tree farm sign! I want them everywhere!!
Thank you so much, Katrin! We love it so much each day!
What a great tutorial and cute idea for Christmas decorating. Thanks for getting my creative juices flowing.