YAY! Another plaid sign!! And I can’t say how excited I was to put this one together because, it was custom made for our family! This is hands down 🙌😊 my favorite plaid DIY so far because of how gentle the plaid looks. 😬 I was very picky with my gray and was able to find the perfect shade of white and pale gray right of a bottle without mixing colors!
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For this DIY sign I teamed up with Craftcuts.com . The best part is, I got to pick exactly what fond, style, and sign size I wanted.
I was pretty impressed with the packaging and loved that they included a piece of cardboard. It was the perfect surface to work on while putting the sign together. 
Here’s the paint I was talking about. I actually came across this paint at walmart and I couldn’t help but get it! This shade of gray is warm enough not to look baby blue and was just the right amount darker than the white to give a soft plaid look.
DIY Plaid Sign
I started off by painting my base board white. Craftcuts sells these in custom sizes. You can get one here – www.craftcuts.com/rectangle-craft-shape
Prepping the Thankful Letters
While the sign was drying I decided to stain the letters with a dark walnut stain. I simply applied a coat of stain on the letters. Let it set for a few minutes and wiped off any remaining stain with a paper towel.
If you love these thankful letters you can get some here. You get to pick what the letters say as well as custom fonts! 😄How fun right?!
Creating The Plaid Pattern – Hard Bristle Brush Method (1/3 Methods) !
I tried three different ways to make the buffalo plaid with this stencil. If you’re looking for a good plaid stencil I got mine here on amazon.
- hard bristle brush.
- foam brush.
- foam roller.
First make sure your surface is dry and secure your stencil into place with some tape. To create the pattern with a hard bristle brush I dipped it into a tiny bit of paint and dabbed most of it off onto a separate piece of paper. Than in dabbing motions I went over the stencil to create the buffalo plaid. Careful not to have to much paint as it can bleed and leave a mess under your stencil. Since the paint dries pretty quick because of the thin layers I did two coats of gray in total. This method is by far the most time consuming but, in my opinion gives the neatest finish of all three.
WHY YOU NEED TO WIPE THE BACK!
Before moving onto creating more plaid pattern make sure you wipe down the back of your stencil. Some paint tends to bleed through and this can make a mess while laying the stencil down again.
How to get continuous even pattern!
The trick to getting the perfect pattern is the way you align your stencil each time. Make sure to lay it over a bit of the pattern you already painted onto the sign. Aligning it to your previous pattern will insure it’s even and continuous.
Foam Brush Method!
Using a foam brush to fill in the pattern is definitely faster. I also dipped it into the paint and dabbed most of the paint off before filling in the stencil with it. Even though this method is faster I would have to say it doesn’t look as neat. If you don’t look to close it looks pretty good but, the closer you get you’ll notice the edges are a bit rough.
Foam Roller Method!
Okay so this method has an upside and a downside to it. Eventhough this is the fastest way to create your Buffalo plaid you need to be the most careful with it.
I applied a strip of paint onto some cardboard and rolled the foam roller over it to ensure I only apply a tiny bit of paint at a time onto the roller. Than I gently rolled the foam roller over the stencil to create the plaid. If you get too much paint on the roller you have a chance of paint bleeding into your stencil without even knowing until you lift the stencil.
If in any case this does happen you can always fix it with some white paint once the plaid pattern is dry.
Here’s an example of paint bleeding through.
Attaching the letters! ( PS. A STENCIL HACK )
OMG! Can I just say craftcuts ROCKS 😎😉!! In order to make sure all my letters were attached evenly I got this stencil in the package (photo below) . All you need to do is simply lay it down where you want your letters and use the stencil as a guide to make sure your letters are straight.
I used some gorilla wood glue and a tiny brush to apply a thin layer of glue onto the back of each letter. Than I lay the letter inside the stencil and pressed it down. 
Once all your letters are secure your stencil is ready to be pulled away! AND VOILA!! It doesn’t get any easier than this!
Attaching Thankful onto the plaid sign!
Before attaching my thankful sign I lay it onto the wood board and marked gently with a pencil on both ends where I would like the sign. Than I also applied gorilla glue over the back and attached the letters to the sign.
Attaching the frame! NO nails Needed !
Okay this is my favorite part of the project! I’ve been doing this for a while and love it! To attach my frame I used some dowels that I cut to size and stained to match my letters.
Than I made sure my wood board wasn’t to thin. I applied wood glue to the bottom half of the wooden dowels and pressed them against the sign. To keep it secure while the glue is drying I taped all the sides.
You’ll definitely need to add a bit more tape than what the photo shows. Once the glue is dry after a few hours, you can remove the tape and that’s it! Gorilla glue is super strong and I find it holds the frame as good as small nails do! 😀 LOVE THIS TRICK! 😋
Here’s a quick video of the DIY Plaid Sign
We had a little family photoshoot with the plaid sign for Christmas photos! I love how it turned out! IN LOVE with this plaid sign!
Those letters look so neat!! 😍
That’s it! A HUGE thankg you to CraftCuts! I hope this plaid sign inspires you to test out some stencils and make your own custom sign! I’ll see you all next time! 🙂
Here’s another easy way to add plaid to almost anything! Attach plaid fabric –> https://www.lilyardor.com/fall-christmas-plaid-sign/ !
Lily-