I told you earlier that I would share with you how I made the choose 2 shine sign that was sitting on the mantle.  Well, I haven’t done it yet and a few people have asked how I made it, so here it is:)

It all started when I saw a sign on Pinterest.

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I love how the wood showed through, and I also loved the color.  I was sucker for words with a number as well, but I couldn’t figure out what mills fab 5 stood for and it didn’t say anywhere in the post.  I knew people would ask what it meant and I really wanted to have an explanation.  I showed the picture to my sister and she said, that’s probably their last name and how many people are in the family.  Duh!  Funny how I never saw that before.  Even though I now knew the meaning, Lundeen fab 4 didn’t sound to good, and our family is hopefully still growing, so it didn’t quite fit.

I had some great wood boards I had gotten from an old barn that was going to be burned down.  They had the perfect color to them and fit together like car siding.  Reclaimed wood always makes great projects.  If you don’t have any of that laying around, you can buy some car siding from Menards or Home Depot and stain it.  Or you can use pine 1×6’s and stain those.  I love the new Weathered Oak by Minwax.  Gives it a bit of a gray old looking finish.  After I put the boards together I took a piece of lath or thin wood and glued it to the back with wood glue.

I then let this sit over night to dry well.  If you don’t want to wait, you can nail it down.  My wood was a bit fragile so I didn’t want it to crack, but if you use pine or carsiding, this shouldn’t be a problem with 3/4″ nails.

Since I loved the idea of a number in there, I found a phrase I liked, “Choose to Shine” and switched the to to 2:)

Step 1: done, phrase found!

Step 2:  Find a font.  I love mixing fonts, so I ended up using Arial bolded for choose and for 2

and after searching a half an hour to find the font I used on shine, I came up with nothing:(  Sad.  Lesson learned, save the files:)  I did find some similiar ones, which were Sacramento and Segoe Script.  You can find whatever font you like!

Once my boards were ready to go, I printed out my font in the size I wanted it and placed it on my wood.

After I found the placement I liked, I traced it with a pencil and pushed down hard.

Once I pulled the paper up, I was left with an indent of the outline of the words.  It’s faint, but I could see it better than the pictures show.

This project I actually started and then stopped.  I got this far and waited about a month to finish it, so unfortunately when I got back to it I forgot to take pictures along the way.  Next though I took a thin paintbrush and brushed on one coat of a blue color called Misty Surf, from Menards.  I had it made up in Dutch Boy but I think it was a grand distinctions paint.  Either way you can just have them look it up by the name:) I just painted carefully around the letters so I didn’t have to tape them off.

Once that was dry I used my power sander to sand a lot of it off, especially around the edges.  Don’t be afraid to sand to much, it’s really not possible.

Once the sanding was done I took a bristle paint brush, dipped it in some white paint, and then did a few brush stroked on a paper towel to get most of the paint off.  Then I gently swept over areas of the boards.  This gives it a nice white wash feel.  You really want your brush quite dry to get the best looks.  If it get too heavy, don’t worry…you can just sand a bit down again:)  So here’s the finish you’re left with..

 I know you saw pics of it on my mantle, but surprise! it’s not longer there.  Instead I put it on my front shelf.  It’s cheery right when you walk in.  Set’s the mood for the house.

and I’m in love with the little daffodils my friend just brought me:)

I also love how big the sign is..

It makes quite a statement.

I think it will last at least through the summer here:)

Happy Spring!