In love!

First off, credit is due to www.sawdustandembryos for the barn board tutorial (which I talk about here), and to www.threemangoseeds.blogspot.com for the inspiration for this sign. This is the picture I saw on Pinterest

I liked it, but I wasn't completely in love with it. Plus, I'm in the process of repainting our shutters and doors red to match the barn we just built, so I knew I wanted to incorporate red. Finally, the original idea used pallets. And, well, see my last post. 

So, I headed to Lowes, with the boys in tow. That's a challenge to tell you about another day. I purchased 6 1x4x6 (they are cheaper in longer lengths, but I had my SUV, so I opted for 6 ft boards instead of 8.) They were $1.68 a board or something like that. I also bought the red paint, which I'm going to use on our shutters. 

The first step was to cut the boards to length using a miter saw. Then, I splashed on some cream colored paint and white paint left over from other projects. After the paint dryed, I stained over very lightly (using Minwax Provincial.) The result were boards that looked aged. Read the linked post in the above for more details on this process. 

Next, I ripped a 1x4 in half on the table saw. I didn't take pictures of this step, but really, I just put the board through the table saw, nothing like rocket science or anything. Then, I cut the ripped pieces on 45 degree angles on the miter saw to make a frame. I should've painted the boards before attaching them to my sign, but I was too excited. (Sidenote, I tend to get really impatient when it comes to things like letting the paint dry!) So, I proceeded to attached the frames to the sign boards. The process looked something like this:

I laid the boards in the order I wanted them on a table, laying off the edge some. Then, I clamped the frame pieces one at a time, and ran in screws from the back of the sign to the front. This could also be done with nail brads. The only thing that holds all of the sign boards together is the attached frame pieces. Once the frame was attached, I taped it off to paint.

I painted the frame red, and pulled out my handy-dandy overhead projector. I projected up the words and traced with a pencil. (The font for "Welcome" is Great Vibes. "Friends & Family" is Minion Pro- my favorite font!) I painted very carefully inside the lines. Again, this is where I started speed working, so not too many pictures. After the words were done, I decided I wanted some squiggles, so I projected those up too. 

And, here's the finished project! As soon as our shutters are painted, this beauty will hang beside our front door. What do you think?