DIY Wooden Circle Sign

So I've seen these circle signs a lot lately and I think they are pretty cute. One of my co-workers is obsessed with dogs and she just moved into a new house so I wanted to get her a housewarming gift. I came across a sign similar to this on pinterest and decided to put my own spin on it. I think it turned out super cute. This is how I did it! 

Materials List: 

- Circle in the diameter of your choice 

-Stain (I used Jacobean from Minwax but whatever color floats your boat)

-Polyurethane 

- White chalk Paint 

-Ribbon 

- Greenery

-Hot glue

-Zip Ties 

-Sawtooth hanger 
-Possibly sandpaper

-Circut vinyl- or stencil 

Step 1: Acquire the wood.

 Now I bought this circle wood at Hobby Lobby because it was 50% off. I could also make this by gluing two pieces of wood together to get my desired length and then using a jig saw to cut out a circle. Since it was 50% off I decided to just buy it from Hobby Lobby. It was a little rough though. It had a large crack in it that I ended up gluing and I sanded it with 120 grit sandpaper to get the marks and scuffs off and get a nice clean surface. This picture is what it looked like before I sanded it.

You can buy these circles as MDF board or as real wood. Real wood is obviously more expensive but if you are planning on staining it you want the real wood for the grain lines. If you plan on painting the entire board then go for the MDF- its cheaper and lighter. This thing was pretty heavy when all was said and done.  

Step 2: Decide your design. 

I went back and forth on this for a few days. I mostly debated whether to just cut the circle in half or to do it with the white in the middle. Ultimately I decided to do the middle based on the text. I decided to stain the boards first because paint is more forgiving than stain. Using painters tape I cut the circle into sections. 

Step 3: Stain & Polyurethane. 

For this project I used Minwax Jacobean (my favorite color). I always apply this stain with a white rag because a little goes a long way and using a brush would make it very dark and uneven- Plus I'm lazy and don't want to clean a brush. I wanted a dark stain for this to contrast well with the white paint. I was careful to stain up to the painters tape line but not to saturate the line to get bleed through to ensure the cleanest line possible. After the stain dried I applied a coat of Minwax Polyurethane because the vinyl doesn't stick very well if you don't put polyurethane on the wood. 

Step 4: Paint.

 After the stain and poly I used painters tape and taped off the section I wanted white. I used white chalk paint. Unlike the stain I removed the painters tape immediately after painting the white section because I wanted to make sure there was no bleed through. I figured if there was it's easier to fix when it's still wet. Ultimately I did two coats of white paint. I utilized a small water color brush to be more precise along the edges.

Step 5: Add the Vinyl and Polyurethane.

 For this project I used my Cricut to make the vinyl lettering for this design. You could also use a stencil if you don't have access to a Cricut. I used the font Adora Chalie which is a free font from dafont.com. I didn't like the lowercase letter "O" on this font so I capitalized all the "O"s in this sign but you can't really tell because that's the style of the font. The dog paw prints I got as a free SVG on google. After I placed the vinyl I put another layer of polyurethane because this is possibly going to be outside or exposed to elements so I don't wan the vinyl to peel. I was slightly worried about the white part yellowing but I purposely used the "Ultra clear" poly to hopefully prevent this. 

Step 6: Add your garnish.

 So I suck at tying pretty bows and typically my suggestion for decorative bows is that Hobby lobby does a pretty good job of supplying pre-tied bows-usually for only $1 more than buying the ribbon. Unfortunately this wasn't the case. I bought this wide, wired lined ribbon and was dreading making this bow. I ended up finding a great YouTube video where this women makes a bow and ties it with zip tie. This worked great for me- a hobby lobby bow would still probably be a little prettier but I was pleased with how it turned out. I also purchased some fake greenery at Hobby lobby. I hot glued the greenery and the bow to the top of the sign. I made sure to use liberal amounts of hot glue so that it stays on forever. Also I had Max attach a sawtooth hanger to the back of it so that she could hang this sign up if she wants to. 

Youtube link to bow tying- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkagWTpAqA0&t=194s

Overall I was really pleased with how this turned out and my co-worker loved it. This is project that I would spend maybe 10 minutes or so on my days off doing each step and letting things dry. The most time consuming part for me was picking a font (of course!)