4 the love of wood: SIGN PAINTED ON GLASS TUTORIAL

This was a big graphic project to undertake as the size of this glass panel is about a foot and a half wide by another 2 and half feet tall.

I hand finished the french typography right

onto the glass door of this Annie Sloan

painted cabinet. This DIY project is not for

the faint of heart, and takes patience and

determination to complete. Now with that

established let's get to the details ...

Once my cabinet was all built and painted I found a french graphic online that would fit nicely on the glass door.

The first step was to print out the graphic in REVERSE.

My image was printed at home on 6 sheets of regular sized paper and taped together. If you don't have the experience to do that at home it could be taken to a local offices supply store that offers poster prints.

BLOCK POSTER or RASTERBATOR.NET are online options

to section your image for printing at home.

The image is then taped to the front face of the glass, facing in.

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The next step was to make sure I had some oil based paint pens and a comfy stool to sit on. These Craft Smart pens I used were purchased at a craft store.

Now with my white paint pen I traced the image on the inside of the glass door. This will create the right direction image on the outside of the glass.

This part of the project took several hours and I used 4 white pens to finish the whole door. Once you're all done remove the paper print out from the front of the door and check for areas that might need some filling in. the outside of the glass is still washable and the paint work is protected on the inside.

Above left shows a white bottom shelf inside the cabinet taking away from the graphic. Above right shows all the shelves inside are dark making it much easier to see the white graphic.

TIP:

If you use white writing make the background dark

If you make the writing black make the back ground light

If the size of this project is too big you can get some practice on smaller pieces, such as thrift store picture frames using the glass that comes in them.

The cabinet was brush painted with 2 coats of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. The color used was Pure white with a small amount of Arles mixed in. The cabinet was distressed and waxed with Annie Sloan clear wax.