Now that the holidays are over I have returned to work on the stone structure. I made an arch over the main doorway by cutting some of the individual stones.

I made lintels for above the windows from pieces of limestone.

I framed the gable ends with 2x6 studs and added 2x6 boards horizontally across the gables. I brush painted the boards with “Light Buttermilk” acrylic craft paint and rubbed them down with black India ink and alcohol to remove some of the paint and give the boards a weathered and faded appearance.

I made a sign for the gable with Microsoft Powerpoint and gave it six coats of matte medium, waiting about an hour between each coat. After the last coat was dry, I placed the sign in a bowl of tap water and let it soak overnight. I rubbed the softened paper off the sign with my fingers while holding it under running water.

I attached the painted sign to the boards with another coat of matte medium and used a soft brush to work it into the wood texture. I covered the sign with one last coat of matte medium.

Its going fairly well so far; more to come later.

Wow, Bob, that printed lettering really blended in nicely. Looks like the sign was actually painted on.

Tell me, though, what does Powerpoint do that Word doesn’t. I have both, but have never used Powerpoint since I don’t make presentations, which is what Powerpoint is for, right? I clicked on that function but got no response on my computer, so maybe my program is not loaded onto my hard drive.

That’s different way of making signs. Kewl!..

Bob,

I love the stone work. have a rock saw and may have to give this a go. What are you printing the lettering on that allows it so blend in an allow the wood to be seen?

Joe,

PowerPoint actually is a pretty decent graphics program. It allows you to ove individual parts around to manipulate spacing then combine them into one image that can be exported as a Jpeg

Here is a simple lettering job I did for my prototype. Notice that the o and e touch. I was never able to get that done until I did it in PowerPoint. You make the C one text box the o yet another and the e yet another and the rest still another then you can align the all and then group them. You can even set the back ground to transparent then print on clear water slide paper.

I played with it a bit more and this has the coloring scheme with yellow on red

Devon,

I printed the sign on regular bond printer paper using an inkjet printer. The matte medium is brushed onto the printed side of the paper. It dries into a transparent acrylic film and also absorbs the ink from the paper. After the paper is soaked in water, it can be gently rubbed off of the acrylic film. The film contains the image and is simply glued onto the desired surface with more matte medium. I like to use about six layers of matte medium on the image, but you can use more or less. The fewer layers you use, the thinner the film, and thus easier to blend onto underlying textures. But, the fewer layers you use, the more delicate the film and possibility of tearing or stretching. It is a technique you need to play around with a bit to get a feel for what works best for you.

Thanks for the tip Bob.

That sounds like a heck of an idea. I will have to give it a try.

I just hand paint, but your idea does seam like it could be easier. Cept, I aint gots no colour printer.

David,

If I could hand paint like that, I wouldn’t be using a printer and matte medium. Nice work!

Bob, thanks. I got tired of buying a sheet of dry transfers, and then not using half the sheet. I seldom have need for certain letters. So I figured out how to paint on my own lettering.

Thanks, guys.