The mantel is a great place to dress up your home for the seasons

I have a love/hate relationship with autocorrect.

I love it because I need a friend in the spelling and grammar department.

But sometimes?

It has a mind of its own.

It changes peony to penny and chair to charge and table to tablet and flower to flowing and mail to e-mail.

Like when I wanted to post about this project.  I’m all excited and typing and my fingers are soaring across the keyboard and then?  I mistype sign just a little bit and SIGNAL shows up.

STOP IT AUTOCORRECT.

Please let my peonies and chairs and signs and words BE WHAT I WANT THEM TO BE.

This fall mantel plan is so easy- and almost impossible to make a mistake with

This is kind of a no-mess up fall mantel craft.

Check the perfect at the door.

I almost wrote this post with all my autocorrects left in, but I was worried it wouldn’t make sense.

So if you have a mantel and you have thirty minutes and you want to make this SIGN instead of a SIGNAL….

….this is the post for you.

Start with a piece of wood- here's a close up of the one I chose

Start with a piece of wood.

DO NOT OVERTHINK THIS.

Look around your house for a random piece of wood.  You might have some left over from a project or an extra piece of molding or a piece that fell off the hutch in the living room.

It doesn’t need to be perfect or un-dinged or un-scratched.

As long as you can paint on it, it’s perfect.

Print out a fall message on your computer in your favorite font

Print out a font from your computer.

Here are a few of my favorite fonts that make perfect signs.

Mellanie.

Angely.

Catherine.

And the font I used for this post—Melika Script.

I purchased most of these in a bundle from Creative Market, but you can find tons of amazing fonts online for free.

Trace on your wood through white carbon paper

Place a piece of white carbon paper under your words and trace hard with a pencil.

You can use black carbon paper, too.

You want to make sure you really press down with your pencil to make sure the word transfers.

Carefully paint over the stenciled font

Then?

Just paint it with your brush.

I used Burnt Sienna on this post because it looked extra fall, but a pretty gray or navy or orange might look pretty too.

Don’t overthink it.

The less you stress over your sign—the prettier the sign.

It’s true.  Really.  It’s like the project can sense your positive attitude and work harder to make itself cute.

Here's the finished sign- so easy!

Here’s the finished sign.

30 minutes from start to finish.  Add a few pumpkins and some book page leaves for instant pretty.

My sign is not perfect.

Not even close.

Maybe that’s why my mantel loves it so much. 🙂

PS  Be careful if you shop for your wood by the sign of the road.  This may or may not have happened to me.

PPS  If you have ever auto-corrected yourself into something that made you laugh—please share. 🙂

Want to know how to decorate your home for free?
Click here to get my FIVE BEST secrets.

Comments

  1. Image for Lisa Lisa

    I love this cute little sign. Autocorrect can be annoying, to say the least. Like when I know for certain"fallish" is a word and it keeps telling me no! Happy Fall!

  2. Image for Betsy Betsy

    I'm right there with you Karianne. Sometimes auto correct is so frustrating! When I text and it puts in the wrong words I let out a big sigh and my husband says "oh boy, auto correct must be on the job". : ) Have a good day. How are things going with Thistlewood Farms? Keep us posted.

  3. Image for Carrie Carrie

    Talk to text is my nemesis! I tried to tell my husband that I had made a salad before I left the house and the text sent was "I have left you kinky sex monkeys". Say WHAT??? I try NOT to talk to text anymore. Unless I'm having a bad day and need a laugh.

    1. Image for Lenore Lenore

      That auto correct is the most frustrating thing ever! However, I have tears running down my face from the "kinky sex monkeys"...I am just dying here! Thank you...

    2. Image for Jean McGee Jean McGee

      Thanks for the laugh..ooooooooo my. Would have loved to see your husbands face when he read this one., Still laughing. Jean McGee

  4. Image for Linda @ Itsy Bits And Pieces Linda @ Itsy Bits And Pieces

    Love the sign! Autocorrect can drive you nuts! I always watch carefully especially when I am using my phone...I can't tell you the amount of times it has changed "thrifting" into "thrusting"...BIG difference. And translating can be really bad, too. For example...I love Vibeke Design, She is a sweet friend...but commenting that I love the color of her stool...well...use your imagination. Thank goodness for the delete button. I always proofread everything!

    1. Image for Kris Kris

      I also love Vibeke Design but I would never dream of commenting on her site--the translation button has come up with some doozies with its English translation and who knows what it would do with my comments? Ha!

  5. Image for Kimberly Kimberly

    Once when I moved to a new house I informed a friend via email that I wasn't going to like my new neighbor. "His job is pooping in my yard." (His dog is pooping in my yard.) I didn't catch it until she replied "How in the world did he get a job like that!?"

  6. Image for JC at the uncommon pearl JC at the uncommon pearl

    Oh the joys of autocorrect! I texted my daughter's boyfriend an encouragement, at the time, or so I thought. It ended up having a curse word in it!!!! They got married this last spring.😊 It makes for a good family joke. Fun and fast sign!

  7. Image for Tracie Tracie

    Hi, I have a doozy, haha - A friend texted me after I left a group of friends that she didn't get to say good bye and give me a hug, so I texted her back and said to save her hug for Monday, as we were going to see each other again. This is what auto-correct did: "Shave your head for Monday night, :) " Lol, I screenshot the text. It still makes me laugh out loud when I read it. oh lord!

  8. Image for Julia Grayson Julia Grayson

    If you haven't seen the movie "Mom's night out" please do! (Those that have seen it will understand). And by the way you made me smile today - thanks friend!! 😊

  9. Image for Janette Deans Janette Deans

    Oh no don't even get me started on auto correct...oh my word...haha....anyhow, I love your sign, so cute for all occasions I think.... I must tell you I am reading your book and to say I am obsessed is an understatement, Kerianne it's is amazing, not close to but REALLY....wow, I cried and laughed and your open honesty has just overwhelmed me, I kinda dread coming to the end...so glad I treated myself.....your a very special person.....xxx

  10. Image for Lanita Anderson Lanita Anderson

    Loved your comments about auto correct......it is definitely a love hate relationship! Here's a funny, that wasn't done by me, but it was about me! A friend of mine from my Bible Study group was emailing me back and doing it from her iphone where she had the benefit (??) of auto correct. She addressed the email to me, but when she typed in Lanita, it auto-corrected to "Lakota" and she didn't realize it until she'd already hit send!! Needless to say, we have had (and are still having!) so many laughs over that crazy auto correct..... Sometimes now, just for fun, she will send me a text or an email and address it to "Lakota" or I will respond and sign off as "Lakota"! :)

  11. Image for Brenda Brenda

    As much as I hate auto correct......I have to say it's good for a laugh! I love all the comments! And the sign is great, too!

  12. Image for Nancy Nancy

    Love the sign and the mantel. I too have a love/hate relationship with it. On the one hand, it gave us my oldest son's nickname. His real name is Hayden but the early autocorrect would make it Gazedo. So that has been his nickname for years. We stopped correcting it and would just go with, "Can you pick Gazedo up?" and "Gazedo forgot his lunch, can you drop it off?" Now...the hate part. The autocorrect for my son Luke's name sometimes comes up as "weed". Not nearly as cute as Gazedo. N

  13. Image for Cecilia Cecilia

    My twin sister was trying to tell me they were selling their Toyota and auto correct changed it to toilet. It was quite funny. I couldn't figure out why in the world they would sell a toilet. Lol. We laughed so hard. Still makes me snicker. But it can be so annoying! I try to check my message before hitting send but alas, stuff slips through. 😉 Cecilia

  14. Image for Michelle Michelle

    The funniest auto-correct for me is when my son sent me a photo of him prepping an outdoor BBQ and I meant to ask, "Whatcha making?" Auto-correct decided I meant, "What Jamaican?" Love the sign, by the way!

  15. Image for Stephanie Stephanie

    What fun with the auto-correct this morning!! I have enjoyed everyone's comments and shares. I know I must have something funny that has happened to me but I can't remember it at this time but I have enjoyed yours. I do love the sign!!! Have a wonderful day!

  16. Image for Mary Mary

    What a lovely, simple project! Its wonderful how little details can have such a big impact. Thanks for sharing this post, and good luck with your dealings with autocorrect! It is a fickle friend indeed!

  17. Image for Erlene Erlene

    Most of the time autocorrect helps me since my typing is less than stellar. It's just a few times where I've hit enter before checking that I've had to quickly delete the weird typed 'corrected' message...lol. Love the sign and paper leaves! So simple and yet so pretty!

  18. Image for Barbara Ann Sandoval Barbara Ann Sandoval

    I get the whole auto correct mind of its own thing. I thought it was supposed to learn your mist ( ok keeps changing most to mist) used words and bring them up. I sell vintage China not the country, which it keeps correcting to,.. but china, which I have to do too many times, erase and retype to get the correct word. I use this word often in my Instagram posts, you'd think it would learn. I don't want to be flagged by someone watching what we post as using China too much. Good thing I don't sell russia ( which it did not correct )

  19. Image for Jody Jody

    Auto correct is always finding ways to embarrass me. I once texted my neighbor, whose husband had built a new deck onto the back of their house, that I thought her husband had the biggest deck in our neighborhood. auto correct changed the e in deck to an i ! I did not catch the mistake and I received a rather rude text back from my neighbor.

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