Ye Olde Tavern Sign

My daughter and son-in-law enjoy touring craft breweries and wineries. They adopted a sweet little dog and named her Brew. I remembered that my parents had this reproduction tavern sign hanging in their kitchen when I was a child. I dug it out of the garage, blew off the dust, and got to work creating a personalized "old" pub sign for my daughter and her husband for Christmas.

First, you will need a board or an old sign. If you enjoy hunting through thrift stores, ebay, or simply smelling fresh sawdust at your local hardware store-this project promises fun!

If you cannot find a sign or an old piece of wood, simply head to the hardware store and have wood cut to size. Craft stores can supply metal hooks or rope for hanging.

Using stripper to remove the old varnish and paint I was able to get a fairly clean, blank area to work with.

After scraping the varnish and old paint away, the surface was not as smooth as I had hoped. I used a hand sander to smooth and clear away any remaining varnish.

I knew I wanted my daughter's dog to be the center piece of the pub sign.I found several old tavern signs by doing a search on google, old pub signs, old tavern signs. I found so many great vintage signs and selected elements and ideas from several. However, finding a small fat dog image was not as easy, I knew I needed to dramatically change the image for dog.

I found an image I could start with and then put it into a Word document. I edited to reflect the true size and shape of my daughter's chubby dog, Brew. I then printed it out in black and white. I cut the dog shape and the dog bowl from the printer paper.

I had to create my own background as my paper was not large enough for the size needed. I used cray-pas/oil pastels to create the fine detail of the dog and the bowl. I then took it to Staples and had it printed on regular printer paper.

I created the words using the printer, a pencil, and scissors. Scribble on the back of the printer paper with words using a pencil. Position the paper words where you need them, trace over them with pencil. You will see a faint image of the letters and be able to use a paint pen to fill in the letters.

Spread Modge Podge made for photo transfer, or a gel medium over the surface of the wood. Position your picture and carefully spread a thin coat-like a thin coat of paint-across the back of the printer paper with the picture facing the wood. DO NOT touch it for at least 24 hours.

When it is completely dry use a damp cloth to get the paper wet. Then, pick or roll off the paper. The picture will now be transferred to the wood! *I did use oil pastels to clarify the image and create shadows. Finally, I sprayed the entire image with a matte sealer.