Easy Wood Pumpkin Sign

Make an easy wood pumpkin sign from reclaimed wood to celebrate fall.

The adorable truck hauling a large pumpkin is perfect for fall decorating.

This wood pumpkin sign is perfect to add a bit of whimsy to your rustic fall decor. A scrap of plywood and some reclaimed wood was turned into the perfect frame for the pumpkin truck design.

To make it super easy to DIY, the truck is added to the sign with vinyl. And now it is ready to display!

This adorable wood pumpkin sign was not planned at all. I was looking for something else in the Silhouette Design Store and came across the cut file for this pumpkin truck. I had to have it!

And instead of just buying it and having it live in my library forever, I decided to actually use it and made a super easy pumpkin sign for fall.

You could make any design into a super simple rustic sign with this tutorial. I’m sure I am not the only one who has purchased cut files for my Silhouette because they were cute, then done nothing with them! Please tell me I am not the only one!!!

It’s just so hard to say no when they are only $1. I should turn all those cut files into easy wood signs too. It really is so easy you could do a bunch and give them away to everyone!

To make the frame around my pumpkin sign, I used reclaimed wood.

If you have been following along for a while, you may remember the two garbage cans of 1×2 wood that my father-in-law so kindly saved for me. It was a raspberry fence that was being redone and he knew I would be able to use the wood… and I have!

I made a wood sign with a router for summer, this beautiful watercolor leaf art, and now I am using it to frame out this wood pumpkin sign.

I love using reclaimed wood to make signs and frames because the wood already has a beautiful patina finish on it. It saves a step having to finish the wood.

You can always seal the wood, but I find it can change the weathered patina (sometimes it makes it really dark). So i just let the natural gray of the old wood shine. And because of that, I can whip out a wood sign in no time!

How to Make a Wood Pumpkin Sign

Supplies:

• Scrap of 1/2″ plywood
• 1×2 reclaimed wood
  • If you don’t have access to reclaimed wood you can use 1×2 boards and paint, stain or even age them yourself with something like this.
• White Paint
• Pumpkin truck cut file
  • You can use any design you want, think of making beautiful wood signs for every season!
• Vinyl
  • I love Oracle 651 for everything and this 651 starter pack has great colors for an even better price.
• Transfer tape
• Wood glue
• Nail gun and 1 1/4″ finishing nails

Cut your plywood to the desired size. I cut mine to 8 1/2″ x 15″. Sand the front of the plywood.

Paint the front of the plywood with a simple white wash. I mixed 50% water and 50% white paint to make a white wash.

Once the paint is dry, it is time to add the design. Before you cut the design out of vinyl, check out my trick for making designs easier to layer I shared today over at Silhouette School Blog. Then cut out all the pieces in the colors you want.

Starting with the bottom piece, start layering your vinyl onto your sign with the transfer tape. Continue until all pieces are placed. TIP: you can reuse transfer tape. I use each piece 4-5 times until it starts loosing it’s sticky from lint and dust.

Cut two pieces of reclaimed wood the size of sides of your pumpkin sign.

Place your sign onto 1/2″ spacers (aka, 1/2″ pieces of scrap wood). Add wood glue to the edge of the plywood, then line the reclaimed wood up against the sides. Clamp to hold in place while you secure it with 1 1/4″ finishing nails.

Measure the top and bottom of the sign + the outer wood frame and cut two pieces of wood that dimension. Attach them to the top and bottom of the wood sign with wood glue and finishing nails like you did on the sides.

Now your adorable pumpkin sign is all done! I love that it easily stands on it’s own. And my kids think it’s the best fall sign ever.

No cut file is safe from being turned into reclaimed wood signs now. I still have 1 1/2 garbage cans full of old raspberry fence to get through.