Make Your Own Rusted Metal Wall Sign

I have a "thing" for all things retro, especially metal wall art. Unfortunately, I'm too ~~cheap~~ frugal to splurge on the real deal, so I made my own.

(This post originally appeared at Crafts Unleashed.

I hope you'll visit me there to see more of my work and tutorials!)

I made two fun signs to decorate my house. One with a graphic, for my son's vintage sports themed room. The other may seem odd, but there's a reason for it! We have a bathroom on our patio that no one (especially muddy children!) remembers is there. I wanted something funny to put on the door, so when I saw my inspiration piece I knew I wanted to try to create a knock off!

Supplies:

(if you don't have a cutting machine you can use stickers)

Mod Podge Antique Finish

Let's make some wall art!

Start by rubbing the candle in the corners, along the edges, and in random places on the metal sheet. This will cause the sheet to resist the paint and allow us to achieve a worn, rusted look on our piece.

Cover the sheet with two layers of your base color.

I used washi tape to mark off my border and paint it.

I cut the text out of vinyl and applied the reverse image to my sheet to create a mask.

Next, I painted the letters and after it was dry, peeled the vinyl away. Some of the paint lifted off with the vinyl, because of the wax resist technique. Exactly what I wanted! I used a cloth to rub off more paint, then sealed my project with Mod Podge. I used the Antique Finish to give it an aged look, but you can also tint your regular MP with alcohol inks to get a similar effect.

For my bowling sign, I used the trace feature on my Silhouette to copy an image I liked. As above, I applied the vinyl to create a mask, painted, rubbed off paint in the corners and on the edges, and finished with Mod Podge.

Now I have fun, custom, retro inspired metal wall art! And you can, too. Enjoy!

PS...the metal can be used as a magnet board! More fun stuff to create! :)

Disclaimer: I received many of the products used in this tutorial at no cost to myself. This is not a paid post, and all ideas and opinions are my own.