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Home / Step-by-Step Tutorials / 🏈🦃 DIY Fall Football Turkey Round Sign — Game Day Meets Thanksgiving!

🏈🦃 DIY Fall Football Turkey Round Sign — Game Day Meets Thanksgiving!

Featuring Cindy Berry

🏈🦃 DIY Fall Football Turkey Round Sign — Game Day Meets Thanksgiving!

Fall Football Turkey Round — DIY Tutorial (Cindy | Berry Jam Crafts)

Quick, cozy, and perfect for your porch this season — Cindy from Berry Jam Crafts shows how to turn an 18" round into a playful football-themed turkey sign using Essential Stencil patterns. Short steps. Big impact. Mobile-friendly layout so you can follow along while you craft.

Materials

18-inch round pre-painted white

Prep + Positioning

  1. Clean the painted round and make sure it’s fully dry.
  2. Place the Football Turkey 12x12 stencil where you want the turkey. With a pencil, lightly trace the turkey outline as a guide for the background — this keeps your pattern clear where the turkey will be. (Cindy traced her turkey first so the background wouldn’t overlap the turkey shape.)

Trace turkey outline

Background — Football Plays Pattern

  1. Secure the Football Plays Pattern stencil with tape. Start stenciling the background elements while avoiding the penciled turkey outline.
  2. Use Kelly green for the X's/O's and arrow details. Use a mini brush for control. Cindy emphasizes: don’t rush — pounce your brush and offload paint before applying to avoid bleed-through.
  3. Add helmets in golden straw (yellow) where shown, and fill footballs with chestnut brown.
  4. Move and reposition the stencil across the round, repeating the pattern until the background is filled but the turkey outline remains untouched.

Tape down plays stencil and stencil green arrows

Add yellow helmets

Fill footballs with chestnut brown

Repeat pattern across the round

Turkey Stencil — Layers & Texture

  1. When the background is dry, place the Football Turkey stencil back onto the penciled outline and tape it down securely.
  2. Use a stencil brush and chestnut brown to fill the turkey’s head and body for the first coat.
  3. Once dry, add a second coat of burnt umber (darker brown) to deepen the body and create dimension. Cindy used a blow dryer to speed drying between coats.

Stencil turkey first layer

Second coat burnt umber

Face Details, Feathers & Lettering

  1. Align the second (detail) layer of the Football Turkey stencil. Use gray as an undercoat for the nose and snoot.
  2. When dry, paint eyes with white, the nose with orange/pumpkin, and the snoot with Tuscan red. Use a fine-tipped brush to refine edges and the small top nose detail.
  3. Use white paint to add feather line details over the body as shown.
  4. Place the Fall is for Football Door Hanger stencil at the top area. Fill with burnt umber and apply a second coat for a bold finish.

Align second stencil layer and undercoat gray

Paint details: eyes, nose, snoot

Fill feather line details with white

Add 'Fall is for Football' lettering

Helpful Tips

  • Trace the turkey first. That pencil guide keeps your background pattern from accidentally stenciling over the turkey.
  • Pounce don’t brush. Offload paint on a napkin and use a pouncing motion for crisp stencil edges and to avoid bleed.
  • For reds: try a thin gray undercoat (as Cindy did) to prevent patchiness and make the red pop.
  • Hold small stencil bridges down with a finger (or low-tack tape) to keep little islands from lifting while stenciling.
  • If you see bleed-through, remove the stencil and clean up small edges with an Exacto knife or a tiny brush once dry.
  • Use a blow dryer between coats when you’re short on time — it speeds things up without smudging when done carefully.

Final Reveal

Final Fall Football Turkey round reveal

Want to make one? Grab the key stencils and brushes below and get started:

Watch the full tutorial:

Finished yours? Snap a photo and tag Essential Stencil so we can share your version.

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