Painted "JOY" Sign Tutorial….Pinterest Party With Friends.

I know that I am in good company, when I say that I have pinned a million things to my Pinterest boards but have only made a few of them. It’s so easy to “pin” something, but finding the time to follow-through with all the things on my “I Wanna Make This” board is another story!

So, a couple weeks ago I got together with a couple of my girlfriends for a Pinterest Party!

We had the party so that we could get together & take an evening to make a Christmas project that each of us had pinned! I know a lot of you are familiar with my friend Mandy from House of Rose (on the right) she was our lovely hostess for the party! Kelly (on the leftt) is a close friend of Mandy & now, I can say a friend of mine as well! She just had a beautiful baby girl named Baylor, who also partied with us that night! It was SO FUN to have an evening donated to hanging with friends & crafting! I mean, really…what could be better?!

So first, came the hard part of picking just ONE Christmas project to work on! I had been admiring this painted “JOY” sign that I had pinned a couple weeks prior to the party…..

Source: beatricebanks.blogspot.com via Tonya @ Love of Family on Pinterest

I thought something similar, but on a much smaller scale with look great on our porch this year, so this was the project I chose to make at our party.

This sign was made very similar to the “Beach” sign I made a couple weeks back for my bathroom. If you want to refer back to that post, you can click HERE.  I just used an old shelf board that we had out in our garage. It measured 38 inches & would work perfect for the spot I had in mind. It had also been primed already…Woo Hoo!!

So, I gave the board a couple coats of paint. I used a pretty green called “Cliveden Forest”, a Valspar color from Lowes. I wanted to color coordinate with my Christmas Wreath that I made, and I decided that this color would work great!

Once the board was dry, I began tracing the letters for the word “JOY.” I just used chipboard letters from Hobby Lobby.  These letters were used for this project & then later “recycled” and used for my “JOY” Christmas Mantel. What can I say…we are joyful this holiday season! 🙂

Once the letters were traced, I just began filling them in with white paint & a small paintbrush. It took a couple coats to completely fill in the letters.

And don’t worry about being perfect when painting the letters….if you get outside of the lines, you can hide it later when you distress the board.

I was able to get all of the painting done at Mandy’s house, but had to finish up the sign at home the next morning. We may or may not have had a small delay starting our party…..let’s just say that I accidentally spilled a large amount of the white paint (that was in that gallon container above) ALL OVER the floor of my minivan. I’m not kidding people….it was a complete disaster! Turns out the lid wasn’t on it as well as I had thought! Grrrr!!

 So, when I got to Mandy’s we FIRST had to clean up my van! Here is a pic that Kelly snapped in the middle of the chaos with her phone!

And another that I stole from Mandy’s blog…..

Don’t let my smile fool you…I was beyond stressed!! How on earth was I gonna get all of that paint off of my carpet!! The hubs was surely going to kill me!

Not to worry though, I did manage to get most of it out of my carpet with the help of Mandy & Kelly! My hubby finished the job for me that next morning….THANK GOD FOR GOOD HUSBANDS! Lesson learned….ALWAYS, ALWAYS make sure the paint can lid is SECURE. THE END!

Ahem…moving on!

So the next morning, I took some sandpaper to the board & began distress the top surface & the edges just a bit so that the white primer shined though just a bit. And, like with the “Beach” sign, I also used the antiquing medium to give the board a little bit of an aged look. Here is a close-up so you can kinda see what I mean…

Because our porch is very small, & because I wanted people to actually see the sign, I opted to hang it on our siding as opposed to leaning it on the porch. We just used a small drill bit to make a tiny hole in the siding & put a nail into the hole to hang the sign.

Another view….

You can see my wreath that I made hanging on our front door. Don’t they look great together?!

Here is a view of the porch from the front yard. The little plaque hanging under the light fixture actually has our house number on it, I decided to remove it for blogging purposes, so if it looks a little strange, that’s why! I just thought it probably wasn’t a good idea to just give my house number out to the whole world!

And because I think things look so pretty all lit up at night, I thought I’d share just one more pic….

Oh those twinkling lights….be still my heart! Just MAGIC! 

Well, what do you think?!

Do you like my new sign?

To see the DIY Christmas Decor that Mandy & Kelly created at our Pinterest Party, be sure to head on over to House of Rose!!

Have you ever had a Pinterest Party with friends? If not, I would highly recommend that you schedule one soon!! I’m know that I’m looking forward to our next party!! 🙂

Linking up here….

Christmas Crafts Holiday Home Party at Centsational Girl
Link Up With Me, Liz Marie at Liz Marie Blog
Grace At Home at Imparting Grace
Outdoor Christmas Decorations at Songbird

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