Holiday Craft Project! JOY SIGN

Don't judge.
My house is already decorated for Christmas. :D

I started a pie business earlier this year and it's kept me so busy all summer long. I sold at our local farmers market twice a week and now we're going into the winter market. Plus, Thanksgiving has me loaded up with orders and then we have Christmas! Craziness. I had a slow week and figured I better get the decorating done now otherwise I might not have the energy (or time) to do it later. The decorations I have, I've had for quite some years. My husband and I will be celebrating our 22nd wedding anniversary in January and while our decorations aren't quite THAT old, I was feeling like I needed some new stuff - or even arrange things differently.

I decided to hit Pinterest for inspiration.  If you want to follow me, check it out. :)  I found some super cute DIY ideas but one I really liked was this wood plank "BELIEVE" sign.  I changed it up to make it my own and am very happy with the results.

Here's how it turned out!

It took me two days to get it done, but I could have probably gotten it finished in one had I started earlier and if my nail gun hadn't gotten jammed, and if I had wood glue on hand.  So, hoping you don't have any of those problems, this should be very easy for you to make!

First you want to paint your entire board RED.  I bought little quart cans of paint at Lowe's - one red, one cream, and one grey.  I'm going to have this paint forever because you don't use much at all.  Let the red paint dry.

Now here's where I would do this differently.  I made my letters on Photoshop and printed onto regular paper.  Not a good idea.  I would print out, then cut them out of vinyl or something that won't go weird when coated with 3-4 layers of paint. (oops!)  Take the cut out letters and spray the back side with a spray adhesive.  Carefully lay your letters down the center of your board and rub the edges well so everything is good and stuck on.

Next, paint the entire board CREAM!  Go ahead and roller right over those letters.  We're doing a resistance technique and those letters will stay red - don't you worry about that.  You'll need to let the first coat of cream dry completely and then put on a 2nd coat.  Let that dry completely.

If all your paint is dry, then you can move onto the next step.

Use extra wide (2 inch?  I can't be certain how wide mine was) blue painter's tape.  Make a diagonal stripe, then put a 2nd strip of tape on that so you get wide stripes.  I didn't measure at all - just eyeballed it, but if you want to make sure it's perfect, measure and then tape.  Leave equal sized gaps between your painter tape stripes so you get the candy cane effect.  Once you have the tape done, then paint all those white gaps grey.  Again, you might need to do one or two coats, depending on how dark you want the color.

Don't leave your tape on very long.  Once you're done painting, go ahead and pull it off to reveal your stripes.  Let dry completely!!  When everything is 100% DRY, carefully pull up your letters!  I had a bugger of a time pulling off my paper, but if you USE VINYL (please use vinyl) they should come up in one piece.  You will probably have to touch up your letters a little bit with some more red paint.    Dry.

Now that everything is painted, you can begin sanding to give it more of a rustic look.  I didn't sand the entire thing.  I did spots here and there with 180 grit sandpaper.  Wipe with a tack cloth and let dry.

While things are drying, you can paint your trim moulding (if you want to use moulding).  I used the same red as the letters.  Use a miter saw to cut your edges at a 45* angle and then nail or glue down.  Use painter's tape to hold things in place while it dries.  Once it's all dry (lots of drying, right?), you can distress the moulding a little with that sandpaper.  Wipe with tack cloth.

At Lowe's you can buy a little bottle of something called Antiquing Glaze.  It's in the paint department.  Wet a rag or a paper towel and put some of that antiquing glaze on your rag.  Make sure you're wearing gloves or something because you don't want to give your hands that antique look. lol  Start rubbing all over the surface of your sign.  Use a dry rag to wipe some off if it's too dark.  Work until you have a look you want.  Dry.

Polyurethane that baby to death since it'll be outside (maybe?) and exposed to the elements.  Let dry between each layer and voila!  ALL DONE!!!!  If you have any questions as to how to complete any of the steps I listed above, leave me a comment!  MERRY CHRISTMAS!!