A great way to start the New Year!

Our home has been a little sign factory since New Year's Day.
We just finished the 54 inspirational signs we are donating to the NY Shelter project.
(see here for more info).
It was a great project for the kids to help out. If it wasn't for their help I wouldn't have finished in time. They were amazing and so excited to be a part of this project. Oh, and my husband too. He was my sander, sealer and hanger attacher. He's actually finishing up the last few as I am typing. A special thank you also to Advantage Payroll Services of LI for their monetary donation towards the supplies.

Tomorrow they will be shipped off to the shelter, one for each apartment.

Some inspiring words for the women and children living there that are victims of domestic violence. And in less than 2 weeks, along with 39 other women in business, we will have the chance to meet with some of the women.

To think, this all started as a group of us were talking about getting together to meet one another until Terry Grahl of Enchanted Makeovers came up with the idea of possibly making a difference at a shelter as part of our get together.

Here's a little slide show of our work in progress.
Thank you Terry, for giving our family the opportunity to help out!

Click HERE for Part 1 of the event.
Click HERE for Part 2 of the event.

Want to make these yourself?

You need:

Unfinished wood plaques

Primer

Base color paint (I used eggshell interior house paint)

Antique Brown Glaze

White paint

Stencils

Stamps

Graphite Paper

Paint Pens

Sandpaper

Foam stencil sponge

Matte Varnish

Hanger

Steps to take:

Sand, prime and base coat wood.

Once dry, apply glaze and wipe off before it dries. I like to leave a little extra around the edges.

Then, I used my background, damask stencil. I centered it and applied a little white paint. Then, I wiped it down because I just wanted a faint design in the background.

Next, using graphite paper, I traced my quote onto the wood with a stylus. I then used a paint pen to fill in the lettering.

For this project, since I was making so many in a short time, I used rubber stamps to add a little element to each sign. I used brown acrylic paint and a foam stencil sponge to pounce a little paint on the stamp and applied to the sign.

After that dried, I lightly sanded the stamped image and my lettering, just because I liked the way it looked.

Finally, we stapled a jute rope on the back to hang and applied a Matte Varnish for protection.

Have fun with these!

Oh, and see more crafty projects at Today's Creative Blog.

Also, visit A Soft Place to Land for more DIY projects!