Just in Time for Valentine’s Day

The awesome thing about being crafty is you can make gifts that cost very little. This works out great for me since I’m crafty(and cheap)!

You may remember the “Bless this Barn” sign I made out of my neighbor’s old gate. It was heading for the trash and I saved it’s life. Poor gate never saw it coming… The sign I made out of it was a Christmas gift for my husband’s parents. They have horses and I thought this would be a perfect gift to hang in their barn.

You may also remember that my mom claimed what was left of that gate for a sign for herself and hinted that it could be for her birthday. Her birthday is February 5th so guess what? It’s all done and you get to be the first to see it!

What do you think? Her house is mostly black and neutrals with accents of dark red. I put it up on my mantle to take a picture and I kind of like it there. Plus, the saying is sweet and just in time for Valentine’s Day!

My mom loved the first sign so I made hers very similar.

Here is what I originally started with:

The first sign was made from the bottom portion of the gate. My husband just rounded the top off. The second sign needed a bit more work.

This was the original top portion of the gate but it needed a piece across the bottom to finish it off.

I used what I had on hand to attach a fence picket to the bottom. It was leftover from the same demo. I attached it with screws from the back so that they wouldn’t be seen from the front. I also added a couple of pieces of wood across the top for stability. Its not pretty but it won’t be seen when its up:)

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Here it is ready to go after I attached the fence post to the bottom to finish it off.

After a quick clean up, I gave it two good coats of spraypaint.

While I was waiting for the paint to dry, I printed out the letters from my computer and cut them out. This made it easier to determine placement.

Ok that’s a fib…my printer is acting up so do you know what I did? I made each letter the size I wanted on my computer screen and then put a piece of paper up to the screen and traced it! The first time around, I was able to print them. Where there’s a will, there’s a way!

I trace around them in pencil and started painting! The old fashioned way. (I’m too cheap to buy a fancy machine that would make easy work of this. Can they print letters this big? I’m not sure.)

It took about three coats on the letters to cover the dark red. I freehanded “lives”. Then I added a bit of shadow in gold. Finally, I hauled its heavy tail back outside for a final coat of clear matte spray to seal it.

Voila:

I kept all the old hardware in tact. (And there’s me, good thing you can’t see my messy living room:)

I knew I would find a use for that gate! That’s two presents that cost me nothing but spray paint and hanging hardware so less than $10 each! See how well that works with my “I’m crafty(and cheap)!” theme?

Maybe my mom won’t mind if I hang on to it until after Valentine’s Day? It looks so nice on my mantel.

Thanks for stopping by, I’d love to know what you think!

Linking up at these awesome places:

Coastal Charm

My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Cedar Hill Ranch

Five Days Five Ways

This Silly Girl’s Life