Stained and stenciled cardboard banner and dollar store revamps

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Right before my Toronto conference trip, I was rummaging through my craft stash and found a packaged cardboard pennant kit I had picked up from a craft store months ago. 

 

dollar-store-wooden-crates-and-signs-and-tray

And what great timing! I had also just visited a dollar store and made a great haul with some mini wooden crates, trays and signs! Aren’t they the cutest?

My goal was to enhance everything with stain and stencils to create branded accessories for a market table for my stencil line. This was such a fun challenge working on mini things! It reminded me when I created that dollhouse out of a bookshelf and furniture from thrift store finds

I started by staining all the wood accessories.


Dollar store wood accessories revamped into rustic signs, brush holders and business card tray using Funky Junk's Old Sign Stencils and Fusion Mineral Paint

How I stained the wood accessories:

This is my fav stain in the whole wide world. It goes a LONG way and you can use it indoors. I will never use anything else ever again.

I mixed my own tone by blending Golden Pine and Cappuccino 50/50.


Next up… pennants.

The only thing I wasn’t fond of was the cardboard look to the triangles… so I decided I may as well try and stain them too.

And oh my goodness, I’m so glad I did. They came out looking like leather!

How I stained the pennants:

  • Brush on stain
  • Dab off with a rag to create a mottled effect

I  stained each pennant by brushing on the stain, then dabbing the excess off with a rag. Actually a sock. LOL

The dabbing left a really cool mottled effect which had a suede or leather appearance. Who knew?!


Stenciling the accessories

And then came the super fun part… decorating the pieces up with various stencils!

All stencils are from Funky Junk’s Old Sign Stencils HERE

I used:

  • Houndstooth – small and large
  • Buffalo Check
  • Plaid Shirt (thin lines used on top of Buffalo Check)
  • Winter Graphics – the snowflakes

I was smitten! Aren’t they adorable?

How I stenciled the pennants:

  • Place stencil on top of pennant
  • Load stencil brush, then off load most paint onto a rag to create a dry to the touch brush
  • Tap the paint onto the stencil until complete
  • Paint: Fusion Mineral Paint’s Coal Black and Casement (white)

After the stain was dry to the touch, I began stenciling. I choose black and white for the designs, with white going on every other pennant.

You can learn more about how to stencil HERE
I am also sharing a video of this process below the pennant pictures.

Once dry, twine was threaded through the pennants for hanging.

Adorable!

I could totally see letters on every other pennant to chime out some seasonal saying.

Or doing them with all snowflakes for winter! Although I love the variations as is too.

P.S. They really do look like they are made out of leather!


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Above is a video of the process!

Music: Acoustic Breeze by www.bendsound.com

Dollar store wood accessories revamped into rustic signs, brush holders and business card tray using Funky Junk's Old Sign Stencils Buffalo Check and Houndstooth with Fusion Mineral Paint

And here’s how the wooden accessories turned out.

So fun! The taller easel got hit with random lettering to mimic crate stamps.

The brush holder got a different stencil treatment on all four sides. Love how they are different yet stiil coordinate.

The tray got buffalo checked on one front, and houndstoothed on the other. The two sides and inside got coated out in black.

Stencils used:

Houndstooth and stained faux chalk board sign for branding made with Funky Junk's Old Sign Stencils and Fusion Mineral Paint

This mini faux chalkboard is my fav. I applied a distressed houndstooth around the frame, and the sign inside was cut out from one of the stencil label headers.

Stencil used: Houndstooth – small

Here was a trial run of a market table before I packed everything up.

Burlap bookmarks painted with Funky Junk's Old Sign Stencils and Fusion Mineral Paint

Remember the stenciled bookmarks in THIS POST?

They were a hit! Made in seconds, and every one turned out great! I love the fact that the bookmarks offered the opportunity to try a product before purchasing.

Funky Junk's Old Sign Stencils headers with reclaimed wood grain branding

Funky Junk's Old Sign Stencils business cards with reclaimed wood grain branding

Funky Junk's Old Sign Stencils labels with reclaimed wood grain branding

Nearly forgot! Do you remember my post about how I used reclaimed wood to take pictures in order to create my own labels HERE?

Here is the outcome of all that too! Everything turned out so pretty! Someone in that post suggested business cards so I got those done too!

Now that I’m back home, the banner and wood accessories look right at home with everything in my paint and photo studio.

I’m also looking forward to finding new uses for the mini crates and tray too!

I am also rather smitten with all the wooden dollar store finds and am curious what else they carry…  oh dear. I may be falling into a new collecting habit I do not need…

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What do you think of the banner and accessory revamps? What would you put on yours?

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Categories: All Cool Projects, DIY, Junk Drawer, Old Sign Stencils
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14 thoughts on “Stained and stenciled cardboard banner and dollar store revamps

  1. Love the banner, do you have the plans for the coat rack? I need one in my entry way. My husband hangs his jackets on the bannesteras going downstairs. Have a Blessed Day.

    • Thanks Jonita!

      I’ve been tempted to tackle the coat rack, however the original patina that comes free from many years of use from a restaurant just can’t be duplicated! It works so well as-is so I suppose not everything requires fresh paint and stencils…

      Although it’s nice to have the option to change my mind down the road if desired! 🙂

  2. Looks awesome Donna! Like the new look! Go get ’em!
    Stencils are big right now.

    How do you stencil on fabric and not get a bleed line ?

  3. I just Love your website! Your ingenuity & building skills amaze me! Repurposing & reusing vintage items is one of my passions as it clearly is one of yours! I love reading your tutorials and how you go about putting it all together. Your use of power tools has me envious. I have only used a dremel, scroll saw, & a very old chopsaw in the past. I have a penchant for learning to do things for myself like you. I look forward to seeing all your posts!

  4. Love the banner. Does the plaid stencil come with instructions on how to make it look right? I don’t think i would be able to figure it out. Again, you are the BOMB!

    • Hi Cheryl! We do not send out directions with each stencil. Instead, the listings share how to use each stencil. If there’s an accompanying blog post like this one, it is linked to for guidance for those purchasing the stencil.

      So basically put, if you purchased a design, read the listings to see if there’s either a video or blog post tutorial on how to use the stencil.

      I hope to one day have a video tutorial of each stencil in every listing! It’s a goal… 🙂

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