Family Name sign

A couple of weeks ago, we went out to see the progress of the house that our friends, Doyle and Mandy, are building. While we were looking at the gorgeous house, Mandy and I saw a pile of scrap wood and immediately started digging through to find the best pieces. I walked away with about 8 pieces of wood and had no idea at the time what I was going to do with any of them. Actually, that's a lie. I thought I might have an idea but didn't really know if I could pull it off. But on Tuesday I was bored during Paige's nap and needed a creative outlet, so I thought I'd give it a whirl.

I started with a blank piece of wood. I did sand down the sides and edges, but they actually were pretty smooth so it didn't take much sanding. I wiped the wood down after the sanding was done.Since it was in the middle of naptime, I didn't have the chance to run to WalMart to buy spray paint. So, I used the paint that we painted the laundry room! I love the color...

It's "Churchill Hotel Brown" by Valspar at Lowe's...semigloss. It went on so well and covered perfectly. I worried somewhat about it since I didn't prime the wood at all before painting. I think I put 2 coats of paint on the whole board. Like my workbench? It's our deep freezer! It's the perfect height for me!After the paint dried, I printed "Banning" out from Microsoft Word in a font that I liked in a 400 size. Then, I grabbed the exacto knife and my cutting board and started cutting each letter out. It took me about 40 minutes to get all the letters cut out. I don't know if you can tell by this picture or not, but when I got the letters cut out, I placed each one on the board, took a pencil and traced the outline of the letter. I'm sure there's a better way to do it, but again...it was naptime and I had to work with what I had on hand.I decided to hand paint the letters since I didn't want to use my stark white paint pen...it was just too, well...stark! So, I used some craft paint! I mixed white and metallic gold. It cut the white just enough and gave it some sparkle. It took 2 coats of craft paint to make it look right, but I like the outcome. I'm not, however, crazy about the "Est 03" part. I'm still comtemplating painting over that and trying again. Here she is in her new home! This piece of furniture is my hope chest and it's finally in my house! I've been married for 6 years now and it's the first time I've had it in my own house. I just haven't had room until now. I'll post about the mirror and blue vase soon...they are thrifty makeovers too!

Total cost of "Banning" family sign....97 cents plus tax for the easel that its leaning against! I had all the paint on hand and the wood was free!