Recycled Wood. What! What!

Finally!

If you have been reading along, you probably know by now I like cheap and easy (only when I am dealing with crafts and stuff. I will take a Gucci bag any day. Hint, hint hubby).

So, one day I was outside playing with my kids and I saw a piece of scrap wood laying on the ground. It was left over from one of my husband's projects. Immediately the wheels started turning and before I knew it I was pouring stain on that bad boy. I LOVE to stain things. I don't know why, but I just really do. Painting is more of an effort for me, stain seems so simple. Especially if there is no sanding involved. Anyways, I stained it and got out my white paint and wrote the word "joy" on it. I free-handed it (very obvious). But I like simple. I like that it is not perfect. There is something about a house full of store bought decorations that makes it feel not so welcoming to me. Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of store bought decorations in my house. I just like the feel of handmade.

The how to is simple. Find any scrap of wood. Any size, any shape. Maybe you have some left over from a project. Or maybe you went dumpster diving at Lowe's. Once you have the piece you want, stain or paint it. Any color. Mix colors. Stick with one color. Paint it and rough it up to give it an antiqued look. After that, write something on it. You can free-hand or use stencils (I used stencils on my "love rocks" one). Just have fun and make it personal for your home.

Here is my Joy sign.

Excuse the ghetto tape holding up my banner!

See how simple and inviting it is?

You can also break out the stencils and make a fun saying on one. I chose "love rocks" because let's face it, love DOES rock!

See how imperfect the wood is? Makes me love it even more!

After you are finished making one, use one of these to hang it. I tried the command strips and it fell. During the night. I thought we were being robbed and I freaked out. So unless you have better experience with hanging heavy things with those strips, use something more sturdy!

Have fun with this. There isn't a wrong way of doing it. You can make it any color and put any words or picture on it. It is a cheap, easy way to bring character into your home. 

Lenci