Live Laugh Love DIY Sign (with free printables)

Make your own inspiring Live Laugh Love art prints in less than an hour with these easy instructions and free printable images.

Whenever I have some wall space to fill and can’t find something I like, I love to make inexpensive DIY signs and artwork like this silhouette art and this Gather sign. They can be customized to match the decor and don’t cost very much. So if I do happen to find something else I like later, I don’t feel guilty about swapping out the DIY version.

Live, Laugh, Love DIY Sign

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A while back I had posted the makeover of the stairwell going up to my home office.

Part of the transformation was to add a gallery wall that would give me inspiration on my “way to work” (up the stairs). But there were a couple of spots that I left blank because I could not find anything I liked.

Staircase makeover with empty wall space under the chandelier | DIY Live Laugh Love art
Staircase makeover with empty wall space under the chandelier

In this case I was looking for something to put under the big black and white chandelier print.

It’s not that big of a space, and it’s much wider than it is tall. So it’s a difficult size to find.

I also wanted a black and white print to go with the rest of the artwork in the stairwell.

So as usual, that meant a DIY project.

In this case, I decided to do 3 framed prints of the “Live, Laugh, Love” saying. To make it a little more interesting, I wanted to do them with the Chinese symbols…that just seems more zen-like to me…and who doesn’t need more “zen” when they are going to work 🙂

Keep reading to see how to create your own Live, Laugh, Love DIY sign.

What You Need

The Printable Chinese Characters

First, you’ll need the Chinese symbol characters to print.

If you already receive our decorating newsletter, you can get the images from our resource library (find the password at the bottom of any of our recent emails).

If you aren’t a member, sign up for my weekly decorating newsletter using this form to get access to the files.



Materials

  • 3 8″ x 10″ frames
  • Black lacquer spray paint (if your frames aren’t already black)
  • White paper

Tools

  • Printer

Paint The Frames

live laugh love art original frame
The original frame

First step was to figure out what size of frames I would need.

Theoretically, you should measure the wall space and then divide the width by 3 and come up with a good size for each frame.

But to be honest, I just raided my collection of unused frames to see if I had 3 that were the same. Lucky for me, I did. They were 8″ x 10″ frames which actually fit the space quite well.

I wanted the frames to be black and the 3 that I had were white. They would blend into the wall and not make much of a statement.

Easy fix to that problem? Black spray paint.

I happened to have some black lacquer spray paint* left from my armoire to desk overhaul so I went with it.

live laugh love art frame spray painted black
The frame spray painted in black lacquer

Just remove the glass, spray paint the frame and then put the glass back in when it’s dry.

Of course, if you don’t already have the frames you can buy some inexpensive ones* that are already black and skip this step.

The Live, Laugh, Love Chinese Symbols

Live, Laugh, Love Images | DIY Live Laugh Love art
Live, Laugh, Love Images

I used google to find the Chinese symbols for each of the Live, Laugh, Love words.

Then I added English subtitles in Photoshop…just in case someone else comes up the stairs and wants to know what those symbols mean 🙂

This was actually much easier than I thought it would be, and you could use the same process for pretty much any word that you want to translate into a symbol.

Print And Frame The Sign

I sized each of the final images to fit in an 8″ x 10″ frame and simply printed them on my laser printer.

If you would like to print out these symbols, too, you can find the printables at the bottom of the page.

Use the glass from the frame to draw the edges of the image

Then I cut the paper to the right size.

The easiest way to do this is to use the glass from the frame.

Place it over the picture so that the image is centered.

Then use a pencil to draw around the edge of the glass.

Cut on the pencil lines.

The framed image

The last step is to put the prints in the frames and hang them.

Live, Laugh, Love | DIY Live Laugh Love art
Live, Laugh, Love

The Final Product

Live, Laugh, Love Art | DIY Live Laugh Love art
Live, Laugh, Love Art

After hanging the pictures, I finally have the inspirational words of wisdom in my stairwell that I was looking for.

I try to remember to follow them every day!

The updated gallery wall with live, laugh, love printables
The updated gallery wall with live, laugh, love printables

Have comments or questions on how to create your own Live Laugh Love art? Tell us in the section below.

This post was originally published on December 8, 2015 but was updated with new content on June 12, 2021.


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2 Comments

  1. Merry Cruz says:

    Just what I have been looking for I am in the process of decorating a serenity room. Thank you

    1. You’re welcome, Merry! I think it will be perfect for your room 🙂