Even though I've already shared my holiday home tour last week, you may have noticed I only gave a tiny glimpse of my (at that time, unfinished) Christmas mantel. I have been sitting on this post for a while because I was invited by Jen Woodhouse to be part of this year's “Deck the Halls DIY-Style” blog hop. I have joined with 17 other bloggers featuring great holiday decor with a DIY spin. (All their links are at the bottom of this post!)
My DIY project for this year’s Christmas mantel is this fun Illuminated Scrap Lumber Santa Sleigh Sign.
I’ve done a lot of these signs out of cull lumber, pallets, and scraps, but my most popular one, hands down, has been my “Oh Come Let Us Adore Him” version which also featured mini lights. So this year I wanted to make a new (less religious) version, and so I thought of Santa and his tiny reindeer.
Along with the sign, I went super traditional with red, green and white since it felt really Christmassy to me. I love the crystal bead snowflake garland as well as the faux iced pine branches I used in lieu of my more traditional greenery.
I also used iced berry branches on the hearth in a white ceramic pitcher to complete the red, white and green theme.
I used silver vases for my mini trees to give height to the vignette..
and the traditional red plaid bows makes me happy when I look at them.
So how did I create the sign? (Since this is DIY post after all!)
Well, I started with some REALLY REALLY crappy wood. This is actually the boards that they use to protect the real lumber when they bundle it for shipping. My local hardware store gives these boards away for free since they are usually not actually square, they are splitting, warped, super rough and pretty much a mess. Often they are the boards that still have the bark on one side. I just cut out the centers of the boards (since that is the part that is the most usable),
Next I used that fantastic driftwood finish I had leftover from my scrap wood crate christmas tree stand.
When it dried I was in love with how it brought out the grain of these really rough boards. (Seriously, I was picking splinters out of my fingers for days afterward!)
I used a few more scraps and my pneumatic nailer to actually assemble the sign. Having a decent bar clamp makes this a lot easier, especially with crappy un-square lumber.
Then I cut a stencil out of contact paper on my Silhouette Cameo. I can’t offer the cut file for download, because it was purchased from the Silhoutte store. You can find the sleigh here, and the font is called Chopin Script. 
I weeded the design and hand transferred it to the sign. I didn’t use transfer tape since the stencil does NOT want to stick down and there was no way it would release.
Even though the stencil is not very sticky, as long as you stencil straight up and down with a dry brush technique, you don’t get much bleeding, even with the super fine details like the flourishes in the Chopin script font.
Here is the finalized stencil:
But I knew I wanted to add some lights, so I had to measure their size using a drill gauge so I knew how big of a hole to drill. 
Then I went to town with the drill. 
Insert the lights and there you have it!
I definitely think this sign gives my old one a run for it’s money. I really love how it came out.
And now, go check out these other DIY projects on this fab blog hop! And thanks again to Jen for inviting me to join.. these other bloggers are so amazing it is an honor to be included! <3
- 12/1 – Just A Girl and Her Blog
- 12/2 – Addicted 2 DIY
- 12/3 – The House of Wood
- 12/4 – Sawdust 2 Stitches
- 12/7 – The Ugly Duckling House
- 12/8 – Sawdust and Embryos
- 12/9 – Pretty Handy Girl
- 12/10 – Not Just a Housewife
- 12/11 – Place Of My Taste
- 12/14 – Bower Power Blog
- 12/15 – That’s My Letter
- 12/16 – ME!
- 12/17 – Her Toolbelt
- 12/18 – My Love 2 Create
- 12/21 – Craftberry Bush
- 12/22 – The DIY Village
- 12/23 – Shades Of Blue Interiors
- 12/24 – Ana White
