DIY Welcome sign

Pinterest has become my new bff.  I am there many times a day.  I found a pin for a DIY welcome sign.  I thought this would be a perfect craft to start with.

So, my husband, the boys and I all went to our neighborhood hardware store for supplies.  All I needed was a 4x4 and a 1x4 and a cheap hanger.  And we got started. (I say we, because I am still scared to death of saws despite the fact that I am married to a maintenance man!)

I do not have a lot of pictures, and for that, I apologize, but I will go through the instructions. 

Maintenance Man cut (2) 5 1/2 inch X 5 1/2 inch squares and (2) 4 1/2 X 4 1/2 inch squares out of a 1x6 that we already had.  He cut my 4x4 to 24" and then cut the 1x4 to 11".

I Gorilla glued one 5 1/2 inch square to one 4 1/2 inch square and then repeated that process for the other two. I let them dry overnight.  Then we screwed the 2 'ends' to the 4x4.  Maintenance Man pre-drilled the holes in the 4x4, he says it keeps the wood from splitting, and I believe him. :)  I had him attach the hanger as well. 

Then the fun part....sanding.  I used 100 grit sandpaper and went to town on the boards until all smooth.  (I should have taken pictures of all my splinters....owie) 

I did not prime but I guess I could have.  I spray painted the boards with black.  It took two coats.  Once dried, I roughed them up a bit to make it look rustic.  

I painted the 11" 1x4 with white acrylic paint that I had around the house. I do not have a fancy schmancy vinyl cutting machine, so I painted the sign. There are many techniques out there to easily hand-paint a sign.  I could not make many of the work; outlining the words with a ball-point pin-didn't work for me, I saw somewhere to use newspaper to transfer the image to your board...didn't work for me either.  But, alas, Amazon had my answer.....  Transfer paper! (duh).

Transfer the image of your word 'welcome' on to your board.  I printed mine in light gray to save printer ink, and painted in the lines of the word. It wasn't perfect, by any stretch, but once it was dried, I sanded with the 100 grit paper again.

I thought I was finished with it but the top just looked empty.  I decided it would look great with a punch-tin candle holder.  Under my kitchen sink there is a 'honey, I'm going to use that for crafts' pile.  I figured I was pushing my luck with how big it was getting, so I pulled out a green bean can.  I was able to peel all the label off with ease and I filled the can with water and popped it into the freezer. (I was told it would keep the tin can from bending when you nail it; and I believe that too) :)  Once frozen, I traced a cookie cutter star and taped it to the can and tapped in the shape of the star.
Here it is with the punch-tin candle holder and some ivy that I found at the dollar store.  I love it!

 One Pinterest craft tackled, so many more to go.

I'm linking to: