DIY Screen Printing Custom Wooden Christmas Signs

I decided to take advantage of the Christmas in July tradition and make some exciting wood signs. These are extremely easy and fun to make with EZScreenPrint DIY screen printing kits and stencils. These stencils are 110 mesh already pre-coated with emulsion, so no messing with liquid emulsion or applying emulsion sheets to mesh. Here is my tutorial on the wooden signs I made.

Supplies from www.ezscreenprint.com:

EZScreenPrint Basic Starter Kit (includes two 8.5"x11" pre-coated silk screen stencils, two transparency sheets to print your design, plastic canvas, exposure board, 2" yellow squeegee, and full instructions).

Extra EZScreen refill silk screens

Speedball screen printing ink, both regular fabric inks and opaque fabric inks

Other supplies:

4 wood wall panels (from Amazon)

Twine & jingle bells (from Michaels)

I started by making 4 different Christmas stencils using EZScreen standard silk screens. They are pre-coated emulsion film stencils, so no messing with liquid emulsion or stretched mesh. The Basic kit includes transparency film, which is used for printing the design. The image has to be pure black for exposing to silk screen stencils. Using the ink jet transparency included with the kit, I printed my designs from my home printer, an HP Officejet. Photo #1

Following manufacturer's instructions, I made all 4 silkscreens in under an hour. Here is a quick overview of how easy the process is:

The EZScreen kit includes a clear board and black board (called the exposure board unit) to be used to "sandwich" the transparency and silkscreen together during exposure. Clear board on top, transparency with design, stencil under that, and black board at the very bottom, secured with clips (also included).

Expose in direct sunlight for 1 minute. THAT'S IT. EZScreen does not recommend exposing in cloudy weather, which will affect the exposure time. After 1 minute of exposure, the stencil goes in a sink or tub of tap water to soak for 15 minutes. This softens the area of the stencil that was blocked by the design printed on transparency, and washes off in water. Once the stencil has soaked for 15 minutes, use a soft brush (also included with kit) to remove emulsion residue from design area.

Silk screen stencil goes back outside to "cure" for about 5-10 minutes. Shiny emulsion side facing up towards sunlight as it's the side that needs curing.

WALAH! Finished and ready to use custom silk screen in under 30 minutes :) Photo #2

I purchased these 8"x10" unfinished wood wall panels from Amazon.

Using Speedball brown screen printing ink, I painted the sides and edges of the piece, applying a thick coat to cover the wood grain. Without adding more paint to the brush, I filled in the center so the grain was still visible.

While the ink was still wet, I took a damp paper towel and rubbed off some of the ink to give it a rustic look, leaving the edges slightly darker for effect. I allowed the ink to air dry for about an hour.

I wanted this wood sign to be multiple colors, so I taped off the words and star, but left the Christmas tree open.

I aligned the stencil so it was centered on the wood panel, and using Speedball Green ink and 2" yellow squeegee from the kit, printed the Christmas tree design. I put the wood piece outside in sunlight to speed up the drying.

After I rinsed off the green screen printing ink, I removed the tape and reapplied more tape to cover the Christmas tree. Using Speedball white ink, I printed the text portion of the stencil.

Once the text portion was dry, I laid the stencil on top once more and printed the Christmas star in Speeball Opaque Citrine. Once everything was dry, I embellished the wooden sign with twine and jingle bells.

All together, I made 4 different Christmas wood signs that are now ready for when the holiday season comes around! I will either hang them together on a wall or put them on top of my mantle.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!