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Tag: Joy Sign

Christmas in a Minute: Vintage-Inspired JOYful Sign

Happy Monday!  What a busy week upon us with Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, and the official start to the holiday season.  As the crazy Christmas sprint begins, I’m thinking simple, easy, and quick.  So this weekend, I created this fun + easy vintage-inspired JOYful sign.  Scraps of wood and a little bit of paint makes this a simple and very inexpensive creation.  It would be great for the mantel, outside patio, or as a gift.

Here’s the breakdown…

Christmas in a Minute: Vintage-Inspired JOYful Sign created by @Jenna_Burger, WWW.JENNABURGER.COM

Simple-to-follow tutorial on how to create a JOY sign

1. Cut the wood to your desired height and width. I used leftover pallet scraps to create this sign, but you could also use new wood instead.  I like the old pallets because they’re free, plus they have a distressed, worn look, which means no “beating up” the new wood.

2. Create the sign and sand.  If you have more than one piece of wood, you’ll need to attach them from the back.  Across the two pieces of pallet boards, I nailed two smaller pieces of pallet scraps on the back so the sign stayed together. Then I gave the wood a good sanding on the top and sides.

3. Paint the sign.  I painted the base of the sign with plain ole’ white paint leaving some of the raw wood to show through.

4. Outline letters.  I freehand sketched the letters J – O – Y on the sign.  You could use a stencil or silhouette if you wanted.

5. Paint the letters. Then I filled in the letters with red craft paint.  I used about 3-4 coats, but it dried quickly.  To give an even more distressed look, I gently went over the surface with a piece of sandpaper (by hand).

And that’s it.  Pretty simple, right?!

JOYful Christmas Mantel

The hustle and bustle of the Holidays are in full swing, but I was able to step back from the craziness of it all this past weekend to revamp my mantel and deck it out for Christmas.

As a Blogger, I feel so lucky to have a platform to share my new creations.  When the time comes to create a new mantel composition, I push myself to always try something new and different, and raise the bar from the previous year.  Thus the result of my new JOYful Christmas Mantel…

Like with every mantel, I cleared off all the decor from my Fall mantel so I could see the space free and clear!  This always helps start the ball-rolling for my latest montage.  I’ll tell you, I don’t usually go into decorating my mantels (or many areas of my home) with a plan.  Once I see a blank slate, somehow it all starts coming together.

I will say though, I’ve had the idea to create this JOY sign for a while.  I thought it would look beautiful leaning against the new ebony stained wood board backdrop. Thankfully all came together and I’m so pleased with the result – I’ll be sharing a quick and easy tutorial on how I created the sign very soon.

Going for an asymmetrical look,  I added a gorgeous boxwood wreath next to the JOYful sign.  I scored this totally faux, but looks totally real, wreath at Lowe’s – I’m in love, I’m in love, I’m in love.  I love decorating with boxwood and cedar branches, and when I saw this, I grabbed it.  Well actually I thought about making it at first, but after figuring out the cost, this was a better deal.

In creating the mantel, I mixed in a few Christmas elements with a few non-Holiday pieces.  I couldn’t dare put away my fabulous white ginger jar that I enjoy looking at everyday, so of course there it is… (along with my easy-peasy presto-chango-with-spray-paint candle stick).  And I think they look great amongst everything else.

Some of the fun, festive decor that I added around it are the:  three sparkly mod Christmas trees, two brushed nickel Christmas stocking holders (which I got forever ago from Target), and one piece of birch log.

My burnt orange wall is a show-stopper in itself, but I always like to add a burst of color in another way.  With this mantel, I brought in a pop of yellow with a few sprigs of forsythia (totally wrong flower for the season, but I love the yellow with the red in the JOY sign).  In the same vase, I added some faux red berries.  Yellow + Red = Perfect Compliment!

The mantel is simple, elegant, and festive.  O, I truly wish you could see it in person!

The drop cloth and felt stockings are still a favorite of mine.  I made them last year and added metallic gold ornaments to give a little accent.

And here’s the overall space…

O, how I love thee!

Thanks for taking a tour of my Christmas Mantel 2012.  Similar to my recent tablescape creation, I mixed in items from around my home with dollar store deals and DIY projects.

Have you decorated your mantel for Christmas yet?  If so, please share the link below so I can visit. 

Looking for tips on how to decorate a mantel? {click here}

I link my projects to some of these parties: Skip to My Lou, Dittle Dattle, Between Naps on the Porch, Today’s Creative Blog, Stories of A to Z, All Things Heart & Home, House of Hepworths, Finding Fabulous, The Shabby Nest, Serenity Now, Tatertots and Jello, Thrifty Decor Chick, Tip Junkie