DIY Birthday Yard Signs

How To Make DIY Yard Signs

Learn how to make these DIY Yard Signs. These large DIY yard signs for birthdays are great for other celebrations too like graduations, retirements, the list goes on and on. All you need is a few supplies to make these custom yard signs to celebrate any occasion. 

You can spray paint these any color if you would like, but we really liked leaving them white.  The contract of the white letters against the grass looked great and saved us a step.  If you want to make larger DIY yard signs you can use the free download letter and number templates for the Large Marquee Letters & Numbers. 

Supplies For DIY Yard Signs

• Paper or card stock to use as template letters and numbers
• Scissors or Die cut machine
• Thick Cardboard or a Self Healing Cutting Mat (to place under the corrugated plastic while you’re cutting it)
• Pencil
• Corrugated Plastic Sheeting – I found that this corrugated plastic sheeting is the best material for DIY yard signs. It’s like all weather plastic cardboard. 
• Utility Knife – Make sure it has a sharp blade.  I like our Scotch Titanium Retractable Blade Utility Knife.
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks
• Landscaping staples – can also be found in home improvement store or garden center.  We used 6″ landscaping staples. Make sure you get enough.  We used two for letter’s like “H” and “A” and 1 per letter for the “Y”, and “i”.  They are sold in large quantities so you might just want to go for the 100 pack if you might add extra signs in the yard or have other projects down the road.

DIY Yard Sign Stencils

We used our silhouette cameo  to cut out letters that we sized to fit on our 12 x 12 cutting mat. I would think of your widest letter you’re using and size the font based on that letter. For us, the “M” in the birthday boy’s name was the biggest letter.

We found a font size that worked with that letter then used the similar font size for all of the other letters to keep them consistent.

If you don’t have a silhouette or a cutting machine don’t fret! You can print out these 8.5″ x 11″ templates, cut them out with scissors and use them as stencils for your signs.  The 8.5″ x 11″ size will still stand out great in the yard. (You can find templates for both the 8.5″ x 11″ and the 11″ x 17″ at the end of this post)

Cutting Out DIY Yard Sign Letters

We found our corrugated plastic sheets at the Home Depot.  We purchased the 36″ x 72″ and were able to squeeze 23 different 12″ letters and numbers.  Of course it depends on what letters and numbers you’re using.  I would suggest cutting out your templates first then estimating what size panel or how many panels to purchase.

Use your utility knife to carefully cut out each letter.  You might want to cut the sections of the board up to more easily cut out the letters. Hold on to the excess corrugated plastic to use later.

Attach The Landscape Stakes To The Yard Signs

Once all of the letters are cut out flip over the letters and numbers to add a strip of corrugated plastic on the back.

Make sure you cut perpendicular to the lines on the plastic so you can see the holes on the top and bottom of the strip.  Cut a 1/2 inch strip to add to the bottom of the each letter and number.

Secure the strip with hot glue.

Add landscaping stakes through the strips at the bottom of each of the letters and numbers.

Hold the top of the landscaping stakes so they don’t slide up and push the stakes into the ground.

Place the signs in the yard to surprise the birthday boy and girl, graduate, retiree, the list goes on and on.  Now you know how to make these DIY Yard Signs for any special occasion.

8.5″ x 11″ Yard Sign Templates

If you’re looking for 11″ x 17″ printable templates you can find those below….