Christmas in....October??

Happy Tuesday everyone! Let me start off by saying that I love Fall. I really really do. It doesn't quite feel like Fall here in SoCal yet (still a bit Summer-ish), but still. When it feels all Fall-y up in here, I'm a happy girl. BUT - for some reason, earlier than usual, I have Christmas on the brain. Perfect example - last weekend I had some "me" time at our local flea market and came home with oodles of vintage Christmas ornaments and a tiny Santa Mug. See....

Well, after I spookified my house a bit, I have nothing left to do but get crafty making Christmas stuff for my Etsy shop, and plan out what my holiday house will look like this year. Like, non stop thinking about it. Lol. I may need an intervention.

Why am I telling you this? Well, Last year I pinned this and I knew I wanted to make something like it. Since my crazy brain is in Xmas mode, I decided to get to work on it.

I wanted to keep it as cheap as possible and giant wood boards can cost a pretty penny. So I went to home depot and got 3 fence posts (that were approximately $2.50 each) and one skinnier one (around $1.50) and made a large planked board. Here's the backside.

(my husband was wondering why it needed to be so HUGE. Lol. Because, it has to!!!)

I wanted my sign to fit in with my holiday color scheme which is fundamentally Red, white, and aqua (with a bunch of other happy colors thrown in).

First - I did a patchy paint job of aqua left over from our front door:

I wanted to get that old chippy look so I tried the "vaseline" technique that I have spotted on other blogs such as Red Hen Home. I even consulted my guru Cassie for advice too (I'm a total rookie when it comes to "techniques.")

I plopped on some vaseline in the areas where I wanted the aqua to show through. Then I painted over it in cream paint that I had in my stash (Vermont cream by Behr).

I just gently rolled right over the vaseline with my roller.

Once the cream paint was dry, I wiped away the vaseline to reveal the aqua chippy-ness.

Next, it was time for the lettering. I basically free-handed the lettering (although I used a wooden wreath form to make the "O." I just drew it on with pencil, and then went over it with red Martha Stewart craft paint.

Here is a shot of the lettering pre-distressing.

I used my palm sander to heavily distress the edges and the lettering, and then I rubbed some minwax dark walnut stain on the exposed to wood to age it a bit.

Ready for the "JOYful" reveal??!!

Look at all of that chippy goodness.......

It will most likely go to the right of my front door, but at the moment it's pumpkin mania over there.

I will most definitely be posting about this again when I decorate for Christmas in December but I was just sooooo excited to show it off!! I love love love it!!!! It is exactly what I had in mind and makes me smile :)

We are headed to Disneyland after school today to check out the Halloween decor and ride some rides (yes, we are lucky lucky people).

I hope you are having a great week!!