Wooden Guestbook Sign

Wooden Guestbook Sign

As a surprise for my brother and sister-in-law I created a guest book sign for their wedding. Since the wedding had a rustic theme, it felt like the perfect opportunity to think about an alternative method for a guest book. So, I came up with a wooden sign that would give the guestbook a more rustic feel and allow it to be displayed prominently.

Concept

A new take on a guest book that would give the couple a piece they could display to remember the day.

Materials Used

Ideation

This idea originally came from the bride’s mom with the bride herself mentioning the concept in conversation.

She and I had been conspiring with how we might get it done and I began laying out ideas for how it would work in 2019. My basic knowledge of stencils and screenprinting mean that I knew I would need to work with two colors and separate each element.

I worked only in black and white and shades of gray to create the designs before we settled on the second one.

Creating the Stencil

I used the Roland Vinyl Cutter at the NYU Makerspace to create the stencils. I originally designed the sign to be bigger (about 24″ by 26″ inches) but could only find vinyl that was 12″ wide, so I had to adjust my design a bit to make sure that the stencils would fit.

I laid them out using Roland Cut Studio and sent them to cutter.

Making the Sign

I found a piece of precut 24″ by 24″ plywood at the hardware store and used that as my base. The first step was to distress it with a hammer and some nails to give it a rustic looks, and then I gave it a coat of dark walnut stain.

The stain used for the sign matched decorations the brides mother made for the bridal shower.

After the stain dried, I started applying the stencils. The stencils had to be applied in three layers: the heart, the ampersand, and the text with the paint drying in between.

Before the sign was given to the bride and groom, I wrote a message on the back wishing them luck in acrylic markers.

The sign had a dry run at the rehearsal dinner where the wedding party and parents wrote messages to the couple with silver and white acrylic markers before going to the easel the day of the wedding.

Finishing the Sign

At the end of the ceremony, I took the sign home to finish it off. I sprayed it with a couple of coats of Krylon Glossy Fixative so the messages would be preserved and then added framing hardware so that it could be displayed in their home. This is the final result.