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Fall Family Football Sign with a Touchdown Shadow Effect 🚚✨
Fall decorating is even more fun when football season is involved! In this project, Sharon Hankins of I Restore Stuff shows how to transform a simple wood board into a cozy sign using the Fall Football Sayings Stencil Set (6pk). The layered colors, detailed accents, and a clever shadowing technique make this project eye-catching and perfect for autumn game days.
Table of Contents — Jump to Project
Fall Family Football Truck Sign
Materials
- Rectangular wood board (ready to paint)
- Fall Family Football stencil (6pk) — we used the "Fall Family Football" panel + truck/football elements
- Stencil Brush Set | Pure Natural Bristle Brushes (for main stenciling)
- Mini Stencil Brush Set (4pk) (for laces & tires)
- Casement white paint (base for lettering)
- Cranberry vintage red (truck & accents)
- Iron Clay / terracotta brown (football)
- Black paint (tires)
- Painters tape, scrap cardboard or cardstock (to mask)
- Hair dryer (optional — speeds drying)
Step-by-step Instructions
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Position the stencil. Place the Fall Family Football stencil on one side of your board. Secure with low-tack tape so it won’t shift.
- Fill the letters with white. Using a stencil brush and a light, circular pouncing motion, fill the letters with casement white. Offload the brush on a paper towel first — very little paint gives crisp edges.
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Set up the truck stencil. On the opposite side of the board, tape down the truck stencil from the same set. Mask any areas you don’t want painted using cardstock or painters tape.
- Paint the truck. Use the cranberry red to fill the truck body. Avoid the football area when painting the truck. Let dry or speed-dry with a hair dryer.
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Basecoat the football. Carefully stencil the football with Iron Clay (a warm terracotta/brown). Allow paint to dry fully before moving on.
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Add crisp details. With a mini brush, paint the football laces white. Then use a mini brush to paint the truck tires black. These small brushes give tight control for fine details.
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Create the shadowed lettering. Reposition the Fall Family Football stencil over the white letters. Shift it slightly to one side (about 1/8"–1/4") to create a shadow offset. Secure the stencil.
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Apply accent colors. With the stencil secured, add brown to the football and cranberry red to the leaf, flower, and the word “family.” The small shift will create a subtle 3D shadow effect that makes the words pop.
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Final touch-ups. Remove the stencils. If any tiny paint bleeds occurred, correct with a small brush and matching color. Wipe any stray paint and let everything dry.
Helpful Tips
- Offload your brush. Always remove excess paint from the brush before dabbing the stencil. This prevents bleed and keeps edges crisp.
- Use white as a base behind dark or wood backgrounds for small stencil details (like the football laces). It makes details pop.
- Mini brushes = control. Small detail brushes are perfect for laces, tires, and tiny highlights.
- Shadowing trick: Reposition the stencil slightly for the offset shadow. The shift can be subtle — less is often better.
- If paint bleeds, wait for it to dry and touch up with a matching tiny brush.
This project was demonstrated by Sharon Hankins of I Restore Stuff, an Essential Stencil Ambassador known for her layered color and furniture makeover techniques.
Love this look? Grab the stencil set and brushes used in the demo: Fall Football Sayings Stencil Set (6pk), the Stencil Brush Set, and the Mini Stencil Brush Set (4pk).
Ready to craft? Shop fall stencils & supplies and tag @essentialstencil to show us your finished signs.
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