Be Kind Sign

This sign is a project my kids and I did at the beginning of the past school year. It hangs by our front door, where we see it every morning as the kids go off to school. I love that they see this sweet reminder on their way out the door. It’s a message that will always be relevant.

This was totally a kid-led project, and the fun thing about it is that there are lots of ways to do it. We used a canvas and acrylic paints I already had, a disposable plate as a palette, and some leftover oral swabs from a hospital stay to apply the paint. Before I remembered the swabs, I was planning to use foam brushes. Another idea I just had is that you could cut up a sponge and use it. Or, of course, regular paint brushes would work. For that matter, so would finger painting.

I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out the “BE KIND” letters, but you could also cut them out by hand or use stickers. I used removable vinyl, and this is where I had some trouble. I didn’t want to use anything stickier, but I had trouble getting the letters to stick to the canvas. Although I’d cut out the design exactly as I wanted it to look on the canvas, I ended up having to peel off each letter and position them individually. I think looks good, so whatever works!

Once I had the letters on the canvas, I put some paint on the plate and handed each kid a swab. The idea was that they’d gradually mix the colors, but at this point I took a hands-off approach. I think they did a great job. 🙂 My kids take after me and went for very colorful, but you can use whatever colors match your decor.

Peeling off the letters was perhaps the biggest challenge, but only because they covered them so completely that I had trouble finding them! I used a tooth pick to raise them up enough for me to be able to grab them, and then I peeled them off. The paint was still wet at this point. I’m not sure we could have gotten the letters off had we let it dry first.

We worked on this project in the evening, and by the next morning it was completely dry and ready to hang.

We ended up making another one a few days later because the first one was such a hit. Actually, I should say the kids did it. All I did was get them set up with the paints, and they did the rest—including peeling up the letters. They had decided in advance to make this one look like a rainbow, and I love how it turned out.