Funky Junk Interiors

Joy Buffalo Check Christmas sign

With Christmas decorating pretty much in full swing everywhere, I’m attempting to stay the course. I have LOTS of plans and things are coming along! A new tree was purchased from Hobby Lobby a couple weeks ago, and I’m finally starting to feel a theme coming on! I can’t wait to share!

While the home Christmas decorating is clipping along, I’m still making smaller festive projects to tie in with the bigger picture.

Remember last week when I shared my rustic vertical JOY porch sign?

After that suuuuuper simple version with the large snowflake replacing the O, I glanced over at the Large Ornament stencil and knew I had to do it. HAD TO. I had a vision you see…

So today, I’m sharing a Joy Buffalo Check Christmas sign with an ornament replacing the O. And it’s a cutie!

This Joy sign is little more involved than the first Joy sign, but really is easy once you see how all the pieces were designed to work together!

Be sure to click the short video at the bottom of this post which shows the easy steps in motion.

Disclosure: This post contains some affiliate links.

Joy Buffalo Check Christmas sign

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How-to:

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1. Two lightly sanded standard reclaimed wood planks were used.

Each board measured 5 ¾” x 41.5″, however as long as Joy fits, you’re good to go! 

Find all these stencils from HERE

2. Paint boards in white.

I coated out the boards with Fusion Mineral Paint’s Casement, which is a nice, bright white. Perfect!

The ultimate plan?

A black JOY sign with a red and black Buffalo Checked Ornament replacing the O in Joy. Fun, right?!

Stencils used:

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3. 4 stencils were used for this project from Funky Junk’s Old Sign Stencils.

Joy Large – Vertical

Large Ornament

Large Ornament Accessories

Buffalo Check – Medium

Wax first
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4. Position stencils into place with masking tape.

5. Run wax over each letter area to work as a paint resists for easier distressing.

Because I desired to lightly distress the sign after painting, I ran a wax puck by Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint where I would paint the letters.

The wax works as a paint resist. As a result, once you paint over the wax, distressing with a light sand will become effortless.

Stenciling

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6. Stencil in the J and Y in black.

Using a wide chip brush, I brushed on Fusion Mineral Paint’s Coal Back on the J and Y.

Adding The Ornament
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7. Since I desired to hang the ornament from the J with the ribbon, positioning needed to be perfect.

Here’s how I did that…

a) Hang the ribbon from the middle of the J, then pencil in the curved part. Remove the ribbon stencil.

b) Position the ornament ring ON TOP OF THE CURVED LINE. Tape stencil into place.

c) Stencil the ornament in red first.

The ornament was stenciled in Fusion Mineral Paint’s Fort York Red.

d) For a Buffalo Checked Ornament, place the Buffalo Check stencil on top of the ornament stencil.

e) Stencil Buffalo Check in Coal Black.

f) Remove the Buffalo Check stencil, then paint the ornament ring in Coal Black.

g) Remove all the stencils, then position the ribbon stencil into place, and paint in Fort York Red.

The ribbon may require several coats to cover the black ring.

h) If distressing is desired, run a sanding block over waxed areas.

Bracing the sign together
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8. Connect the two planks together somehow.

The boards were braced together by screwing two hinges along the top and bottom on the front of the sign, then this L brace on the back. It worked great!

The hinges on the front of the sign came from my junk bin. I spray painted them white, then screwed them to the front of the sign. (shown further down this post)

A back brace was then added to the middle of the back of the sign for extra stability.

Let’s Decorate!
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9. Add evergreen branches by screwing them into place, with a ribbon on top.

And now the fun part! With the sign fully assembled and lightly distressed (because I like my signs lookin’ old!), I played around with several decorating options…

Decorating the ornament is one! I screwed a few evergreen branches into place…

Bows and greens

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… then added a pre-made Buffalo Check bow. It looked really cute and would be perfect as a stand-alone sign.

I love adding live elements to an otherwise flat sign. They really help things pop.

Bow only
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And here’s the Joy sign with just the Buffalo Checked bow! That’s cute too if you have lots of greens around the sign already.

Just paint
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And finally, no bow and no greens!

The Buffalo Checked stenciled ornament really stands alone well if there’s lots going on around the sign already.

It’s so cute each way!

To better understand the process, click below to watch the videos.

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Videos

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Click above to watch a shortened video (music only) on how to stencil the ornament. (under 2 minutes)

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Click above to watch the FULL tutorial video, power packed with easy, valuable stencil tips via voice. (5 minutes)

Music: Acoustic Breeze by www.bensound.com

Well, it’s a good thing you’re the designer of your own Joy Buffalo Check Christmas sign… because you get to decide how to decorate yours!

In all honesty, all options looked pretty adorable if I do say so myself…

Which do you prefer?

Find

Find all the JOY stencils used in this tutorial HERE

Find all the Christmas stencils HERE

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Other related projects you may enjoy:

Rustic vertical JOY sign on shiplap

JOY sign from junk

String-wrapped junk Christmas trees

Visit all my other Christmas projects from one page HERE