Have you ever wondered how to transfer text onto a piece of wood without a fancy cutting machine? I wanted to make a "Lucky" sign for St. Patrick's Day, but I don't own a Silhouette or a Cricut. So I improvised.

There are several options, but I ran across this one on the internet. I honestly can't remember where I saw it...but it definitely wasn't my idea.

Take a printout of whatever you wish to transfer, and tape it onto the wood using painter's tape. I am using two 1x6  scraps that I had lying around.


Take a pencil or ball point pen and trace around the edge of the items you wish to transfer. The tracing will create an indentation in the wood which acts as a dam for the paint.


Paint the boards as you wish. I actually painted the background, then whitewashed the whole thing.

I used some double sided scrapbooking tape to apply a picture of me and my husband from when we were dating...because I think we were pretty lucky to find one another.

In another vein of being lucky, the day after I did this project, I found out that I won a fancy cutting machine. Woot! So this is probably my last sign tutorial without one of those...we'll see how much I love this new tool. Anybody else get giddy when they get a new crafting tool? I hope I'm not the only one! :-)