Michael's Knockoff Word Art Plaque for Fall

This post contains affiliate links. I will be compensated for purchased made through those links at no additional cost to you. All views expressed are my own. Thank you for your support!

    It's that time of year!  School is back in and before you know it, Halloween will be here.  Time to get out the Fall decor and start eating things made with pumpkin pie spice! 
     I was thinking about a little strip of wall that I have between my family room and kitchen when I went to look around Michael's the other day.  Michael's has a ton of really cute fall items for the home right now and I saw a bunch of really cute plaques for about $5.00 that I thought would be perfect for my wall.  Then, I found these little unfinished wooden plaques for 99 cents!  I knew that I could paint a whole slew of word signs at a much lower price! (.99!)  I already owned the paint and brushes, etc.  
      I am going to paint 2 more, which I will share with you later, but today I will share the basics for this cute little "Hello Pumpkin" plaque. 

Supplies:

• 3" x 5" unfinished wooden plaque
• paint brushes.  (I used 2 flat brushes, one smaller and one medium.  Also a small liner brush.)
• Acrylic craft paint: orange, green, black and brown.
• Chalkboard paint (I use this one, but this one is on clearance online right now!)
• Chalk Marker
• An old stiff bristle brush or tooth brush

    As I said, I already owned all of these supplies except for the .99 plaques.  If you have to buy it all just for this project, if will be cheaper to just buy the pre-made plaques!  

Instructions:

1. Begin by giving your wooden piece a light sanding.  It will be pretty smooth already, but sometimes there are some rough places on the edges. 
2. Next, paint the outer edges of the plaque orange.  I gave it a few coats for a nicely covered smooth look. 

3.  Use blackboard paint to cover the flat surface on top. 

4.  Use a stiff bristle brush or toothbrush to flick paint around the edge of the plaque. 
5.  Practice how you want to do your lettering on a piece of paper before you attempt it on your plaque.  You could use white graphite or a stylus to give yourself a pattern to follow. 

6.  Use the white chalk marker to write on the plaque.
7.  I decided it needed a little something extra, so I made a pumpkin in the corner. Use plenty of coats to fill it in and hide the black.  Then use your brush strokes to add to the texture of the pumpkin.  

I used a little brown to add shadow along the creases of the pumpkin and at the bottom.

8.  Finally use green to add leaves, vines and stem.  

Et, voila!

    I am converted to Command Strip picture hangers for all of my picture hanging needs!  No more pictures getting crooked with the slam of a door or big truck driving by!  And, Command Strips make it so much easier to hang them straight the first time! 
     I'll show you the next plaques I do later on! Let me know if you have any good Fall sayings I can use.