Custom-Made Sports Team Signs

My sister-in-law and family just moved to a new house.  With a new house, comes new artwork!  Her oldest son is a big sports fan and has several favorite teams - specifically Alabama football (around here, you have to pick either Auburn or Alabama), the Harding Bison (his parents' alma mater) and the St.Louis Cardinals (his dad's long-time favorite team).  She asked me to make him some matching artwork for these three favorite teams for his new bedroom.  Of course I was thrilled. What a great just-for-fun project!*

*This project was for personal use only.  I am not selling these signs or any licensed sports team signs.  If you are interested in sports-themed decor, I do offer personalized posters that can be customized with your favorite team names or custom wood-painted signs.

She wanted three square signs painted on 18" x 18" plywood.  We found the images we wanted to work with online and started with this:

In Photoshop, I changed each picture to two-color images and sized them to fit the wood.  The edges were a little fuzzy since the images were enlarged, but since I'd be cutting out the logos, it didn't matter how it printed.

Next, I printed the images in sections on plain printer paper, making sure to overlap the sections so I'd be able to easily piece them together once they were all printed:

I cut the edges off of the paper so I could easily fit the pieces together and tape them down to each other to make one large sheet:

Once they were taped together, I cut them all out and layed them on the boards (which had already been painted with the letter/image color):

Next, I used temporary spray adhesive to attach the templates to each board.

Then I spraypainted the boards with the background color (two coats at least):

Once the paint was dry, I removed the templates:

After a little bit of touch up to clean up the edges of each design, I distressed the mess out of them with sandpaper and a little bit of brown watered down paint and a rag.

Projects like these are so much fun for me to do! Hope my nephew enjoys them!

*This project was for personal use only.  I am not selling these signs or any licensed sports team signs.  If you are interested in sports-themed decor, I do offer personalized posters that can be customized with your favorite team names or custom wood-painted signs.