The ULTIMATE Pottery Barn NOEL Knockoff

So did I you know I have an itch of a creative side?
Just an itch.
Ok, maybe a big itch, but its one of those itches in the middle of your back that you can never seem to get to, and when you ask your husband to scratch your back he just lightly paws at you, which leaves you wanting to knock him upside the head.
With that said I'm a learning crafter/seamstress/super mom.
While I'm not getting my workouts in I'm slowly driving the hubby crazy with all the projects I have going on.
What is great is that I find one of my other navy wives buddy, to a crafter as well. YAY! That means I can now share the crazy tutorials I find on blogs with her, and try to con her into doing them with me :)
So moving on to the POTTERY BARN knockoff.

Have you seen this bad boy in the Pottery Barn catalog? Gorgeous huh? Just perfect for your mantle, or massive blank. Or if you are definitely trying to make a statement. If you havent had the chance to drool all over PB's catalog I'm sure you've seen EVERYONE elses attempt (here and here) to make their own version. You see so many attempts, because at $140  from Pottery Barn... well Pottery Barn is a "LOOK but no TOUCH".

So for a grand total of $8.58.

My buddy Denice and I pulled off our OWN version.

Materials:

1. MDF board (found at Home Depot, however big you want) $2.97
2. RUST-OLEUM HAMMERED BROWN spray paint $5.61
3. LARGE ART PAPER (already had, but you can find at your local craft store, or ask you childs teacher)
4. JIGSAW (husbands garage)

In the process of wanting to make the NOEL sign large enough, printing it on computer paper wasnt giving us what we wanted. So our SMART ass husbands decided it would "smart" to use a projector to make the sign as large as want. Like we have a projector up our bums, but they did have one at their school. So if you have access to a PROJECTOR, you can trace the sign as large as you want on to some PAPER.

Next step was to cut of the stencil. As seen in other blogs they pieced together the letters, but with PB it was on large piece of wood. So we kept the letters together.

Tape & Trace.

Now the next part can be a little hard if a.) you dont own a jigsaw and b.) if you have never used one before. 

Before going to Denice's house to work on this I had asked her if she ever used a jigsaw, she said "No, but I've seen Frank (DH) use it". 

GREAT.

Even better, is she lets ME do it. We all gotta learn somewhere right?

It wasnt hard, but it did take some patience, and taking our time. 

Using a drill, drill holes into the center pieces, so you dont cut through you project.

I did mess up .... a couple of times. Nobody is perfect. For placing that were looking extra "weird", we sanded it down. Cutting the "O" was NOT fun.

Viola! Gorgeous huh? After finishing we hustled into Denice's house to admire it on her mantle. Of course not painted yet.

Once I got home, whipped out my large cardboard. As you can see I have done many a project on this.

Had seen Craftily Ever After use the hammered Rust-Oleum and was in love, but wanted something dark like PB had used. 

 And DONE! Wonderful huh?

Now I just need to decide WHERE to put it!

What do YOU think?

Big thank you to Denice for giving me the board, and letting me using my sawing skills on her husbands power tools!


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