Wooden Christmas Sign

A few weeks ago I received an email from my sister with a copy of this picture.  She said, "I'll take one of these for my birthday :) "  Since I didn't get around to it by her birthday I had to get to it before Christmas!  

Right off I want to tell you this is a more time consuming project than I normally share.  BUT, please don't let that keep you from trying.  It can be done in a day or even an afternoon.  I've tried to do some of the prep work to speed it up for you.  

Items Needed For This Project:

• Wood Board:  I went to Home Depot.  They have plywood in 2' X 4' pieces.  I had them cut it in half to make (2) 24" X 24" squares.  Total cost was $10 = $5 each. You could get similar at most hardware supply stores. They will cut for free.
• Craft Paint:  Black, White, Red.  I used a lot of white.  You probably need 4 bottles of white and just one of black and red.
• Stain:  I used Minwax 'classic gray'.  I bout the smallest container as it doesn't take much at all.  
• Sandpaper:  I used my electric hand sander.  But you could do by hand as well.
• Sharpie:  Black and Brown.  
• Misc:  Ruler, Pencil, Carbon Tracing Paper, Painters tape.

Step by Step Instructions:

1. Lighty sand board: Sand with the Grain.
2. Paint entire board white.  I did two coats. Paint with the grain.
3. Trace words onto board.  (  'HAVE': 4" letters placed in center 1.5" down from top, 'YOURSELF A': 3.5" letters placed in center 1/2" below HAVE, 'MERRY': 5" letters placed in center 3/4" below YOURSELF A, 'CHRISTMAS': 3" letters placed in center 1.5" from bottom, 'little': 2.5" letters placed in center of board and center of words.  ) ***Fonts used:  Arial Black and Janda Elegant Handwriting
4. Paint words.
5. Using painters tape, Tape off 1/2" border and paint black
6. Distress sign using sandpaper.  Wipe off all dust with clean rag.
7. Outline black words with black sharpie.  Used a ruler on all straight edges to get nice crisp look.  Use brown sharpie on red 'little".
8. Using Minwax Classic Gray stain, wipe over entire sign.  Wipe off excess.  
9. Optional:  Spray with Deft clear coat finishing spray.