Reclaimed Wood Christmas Art

I finished all of my shopping, shipping, wrapping and baking this week so I finally had some time for creating something and decided to dip into my stash of reclaimed fence boards to create a picture for Christmas.  I love this line from the carol O Holy Night so I decided it would be perfect for this large piece.

Once I decided on the size I wanted, I cut the boards and staggered them randomly.  I often do this because . . . no matter how much I measure and how careful I am, I can't seem to get my boards cut evenly/equally.  Staggering means . . . it doesn't matter haha!

Using a piece of 1/4" plywood, I used small nails to secure the plywood to the boards, holding them in place.

I chose a simple font and printed out the words to fit the boards.  You can play around with the arrangement and spacing before you being transferring and painting the letters onto the wood.  Typically, I will use graphite paper underneath and trace the letters, transferring the print onto the boards.  In this case, I wanted to paint the words on the plain wood in white so I used the old "rub chalk onto the back of the paper" method and then traced over the letters.

These boards were a bit tricky as they are rough and ridged, not smooth.  In the end, I didn't mind that the lines aren't perfectly smooth -- I wanted a more rustic look anyway.

The boards I chose had these lovely, smooth knot holes in them.  I wanted to do something a little special with them so I attached these piece of snowflake paper to the back so they show through the holes.

I lightly sanded the words once they were dry and then added a few snowflakes.

I needed something fairly large and substantial at the end of this hallway and I think this works nicely.  I may even leave this up for the winter months.

Two side notes:  This little table was my very first blog post project in 2011!  I've used it in many places in my house and I just love it.

Second note:  That's my mom in the photo on top - she passed away last year with dementia.  She LOVED birds and these ceramic ones were a few from her collection.  I found this oil painting of birds at an estate sale and think it makes the perfect 'back drop' here.

Then my brother found this cardinal Christmas lamp that was my mom's and gave it to me.  It completed the arrangement!

My mom always made every holiday special . . . even ones like St. Patrick's Day (and we're not Irish!) and Valentine's Day.  I inherited my love of holiday decorating from her for sure!  I miss her.  The other day it was so gray and dreary here (for like the 5th day in a row!) and when I walked in the house I said to my dog (yes, I talk to him haha!), "Hudson, this weather is the PITS".  Now I hadn't said or heard that in years but that was one of my mom's sayings!  I guess in many ways . . . we do become our mothers!