Welcome Sign

 My husband and I moved to a new state this summer and have been busy getting settled into a new area, new jobs, and a new (to us) house.  One of the exciting things about moving to a new place is getting to decorate!  I had fun decorating our old apartment and will use some of the things I made there at our new place.  I am also having fun trying out new decor to fit our house.

Our new house has a fun 3 seasons room/enclosed porch and I wanted to make a welcome sign to welcome our guests.  I am so happy with how it turned out.

Here is what I did in case you want to make your own. :)

I had a 1x4 lying around, but the wood wasn't weathered, it looked too new.  Since I was trying to keep the budget low I decided to make my own stain.  I went with a mix of steel wool and vinegar, coffee and tea.

 I put a piece of steel wool in a jar with vinegar and left it for a few days.  I made the tea/coffee right before I was ready to use it.  I used what I had on hand so I made a mug of Keurig cup sleepy time tea that we had gotten as a sample.  I added a spoonful of instant coffee to the tea.   I then brushed the vinegar/steel wool mixture on the board first with a foam brush.  When that dried I brushed on the coffee/tea mixture.  The wood came out a beautiful color.

I would recommend cutting the wood before staining, but I wasn't sure my stain would turn out so I cut after.  My husband actually did the work of cutting the wood with a hand saw for me.  After he cut it I attached 2 small pieces of wood on the back with screws to hold the boards together.

There are different ways to paint on wood.  I used my Silhouette SD to make a stencil out of vinyl and painted with a foam brush and acrylic craft paint.  (Font is Bickham Script Pro Regular)  Once the paint dried I peeled up the stencil.  Done!

One step closer to making our house a home. :)