“Give Thanks” Sign

Teaching the Alphabet to Toddlers and Pre-schoolers

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My front porch was looking a little "blah" and needed some fall cheer so I made a fun "Give Thanks" sign to jazz it up a bit! I must admit I was just kind of playing around with materials I had until I was happy with the way it looked but I think it turned out really cute!

I started by digging through our scrap wood until I found a piece that was the size I wanted. If you don't have scrap wood you can go to Lowes or Home Depot and dig through their scrap wood.

I taped some leaves to the wood...

and applied a light layer of green spray paint. When I removed the leaves it looked like this:

Next I painted a brown stain that brought out the grain in the wood really nicely (happy surprise)! The stain I used is called "Stain and Seal" by Faux Effects, it is water-based. I applied a thick coat and then wiped it off with a paper towel.

I used a wooden chip brush to stipple (dab) more stain around the edges to make them darker.

Once the stain was dry, I painted "Give Thanks" on the board with cream, brown, red, and orange acrylic paint.

I thought some glitter would add a nice contrast to the rustic look I had achieved so far, so I used some good ole Elmers glue to draw on leaves (which I covered with brown glitter) and embellish the letters (which I covered with orange glitter).

***If you have a hard time painting freehand I recommend printing out the words in a font you like and the size you want it to be, then lay the printed word right above where you are painting so you can try to copy the letters... or you can just stencil it!***

Once the glue was dry I was ready to add something to hang my sign... but not just any old hanger, it had to be fab! I screwed in some picture-hanging screws to the top corners of the wood to attach the wire.

I curled the wire around a pencil and then also added a shorter, straight piece of wire to hold it securely (the curly one is just to look pretty). Then I tied ribbons and some of my "Glam Glittered Leaves" to the wire.