And so we begin...

I'm starting my blog off with two posts about Christmas crafts. I know, I know...it's New Year's Eve. But I just loved how these turned out so I wanted to share anyway :)


The first one is a NOEL sign that is a knock-off of a beautiful Pottery Barn piece. I got the inspiration over at Frugal with a Flourish and it was an easy peasy project. The toughest part for me was cutting small enough pieces of wood to secure the letters together. I'm not too savvy with a saw...Hubby had to assist.


This first picture is my initial combination of the letters. I purchased these at Hobby Lobby for $1.99 each. You will need to peel off the stickers and remove any staples that may be left behind too (duh).

Everything fit perfectly except when aligned, the N stuck out annoyingly slightly to the left. It was either cut the extra off or have the L longer than the E at the bottom. I chose the first option because I didn't want the bottom of the sign to be uneven. So I marked the line and sawed it off. Well worth the extra time.


I didn't have any scrap wood so I used wooden paint mixing sticks instead. I wanted something flat but sturdy and it seemed to do the trick.

I used a brown smooth satin finish spray paint. I can't remember what brand I used and I'm too comfortable inside my warm house to make my way out to the dark and cold garage to find out. I will keep track next time. My apologies. Anywhoo, here is the final product on my mantle. 

Now how's about a funny story involving this particular sign. I bought the materials to make two of these, one for me and one for my Bunko group's Dirty Santa game. I only had time to work on one of them at the time so I made the one for Bunko first. I was very proud of my NOEL sign and excited for it to be a participant in the game. It was opened towards the very beginning and shortly after, we decided to pause Dirty Santa to make a group photo. Well...my sweet friend who chose my sign sat it behind her on the sofa where she was sitting while she stood for the picture. Not two seconds after we took the photo, she sat right down on the couch and all we heard was a huge CRUNCH! Oh, it was awful! I think I had a heart palpitation. Thankfully, our Bunko host's husband was home and is a wood-working genius. He took it down to his workshop and fixed it up for her a few days later. Oh well, it makes me laugh just thinking about it although it was sad to see it in pieces :(