Personalized Wedding Gift - A Pinterest Project

I don't know if you know this or not, but wedding season is coming up. I've been invited to 3 weddings so far. One was last weekend, one is in 2 weeks, and my sister's is in June. I had found this little beauty back when I first started pinning, and I just knew I would use it some day. My sister is gonna love it!

Ok, so it's not as rustic as Katie's (inspiration), but I didn't have any spare wood laying around. I had to go purchase it, so mine wasn't already pre-weathered. I still really like it, but I do wish I had used off white paint instead of bright white. Maybe next time.

It's very simple to make. Let's start with the board. I went to Lowe's and picked up a pre-cut 2x2 pieces of plywood. I'm not sure about the thickness; I probably should have looked at that. It's pretty thin, because I thought a thicker piece would be too heavier. Oh, it's also cheaper than the thick pieces. It was something like $3.48. They even cut it in half for me. 

Now on to weathering. For the red, I used a bright red craft paint. I added 2 black drops to it, and just a bit of water. The water is for thinning. I wanted the board to sort of soak it up a bit. I used my larger paint brush to mix the two colors together, and I started painting away. Notice the cardboard is colored too, yeah take that precaution or you'll end up with paint everywhere. I used another styrofoam bowl and put a few drops of black paint in it. I took my smaller (dry) brush and brushed out a few strokes onto the side of the bowl. Basically, I was trying to dull the paint a bit. Then, I swiped a few brushstrokes across the board to give it a weathered affect. I did this randomly and minimally. 

Let's talk stenciling. To make my own stencils, I used a printer and document editor. Yep, it's that simple. Once I selected the size and fonts I wanted, I used one of Hubby's pocket knives to cut the letters out. Wanna know what fonts I used? (keep in mind I have a Mac, but you can always download fonts. I did!)

Dillon - Helvetica size 400

& - Times size 200

Kristen - Honey Script Semi Bold size 500

EST. 2013 - Papyrus size 150

I ended up laying the stencils out one more time. Notice how in the picture the & is straight. I decided while painting that I wanted it to be catty-corner. I'm pretty happy with that decision.

Next just get a Sawtooth Hanger and hot glue it to the back for easier hanging.

I was very careful to hold the sides of the stencil down as not to paint under them. I did make a few mistakes, but I was able to cover them up pretty well. 

I'm pretty sure my sister will like it. I know her future husband does, because he's already seen it. Maybe I should start selling these on Etsy. What do you think?