Lil Cowboy Sign

As I've mentioned before, Elijah kinda sorta has a cowboy themed room. I didn't want to go over the top with the whole cowboy look, but I also wanted people to be able to tell that's it's kinda sorta supposed to be cowboy themed. I felt like the little cowboy print and the old lantern lights weren't quite driving the point, so I decided to go a more obvious route and make a 'Lil Cowboy' sign. That should ensure that there's no confusion!

=)

The first thing I did was type 'Lil Cowboy' in Word and printed it out (each letter was a whole page). Next, I turned the printed side facing down on my green scrapbook paper and traced along the outline of each letter, which transferred the outline onto the scrapbook paper. Would you believe I just discovered that by accident?? I know you guys are probably thinking now that I must live under a rock!

After I had that all cut out, I went to Home Depot and bought a pine board that was 10'' wide and 6' long.

I wanted to add some character to the board so I got this brilliant idea (<--- That would be totally sarcastic) to make it look like planked floors, so I got out some long metal thingy I found in the garage, a flathead screwdriver, and a wood chisel (which is not pictured because I was expecting this would be easy to do with just a screwdriver, but I was oh so wrong!). I marked 3'' in from the top and bottom edge then used the metal thingy I found in the garage as a guide to run the screwdriver and chisel along to create the 'planks'.

TIP: It was easiest to use the corner of the chisel for that part.

Next, I made random vertical lines to make it look like several different boards were running horizontally.

TIP: It was easiest (and I use that term lightly) to use the whole chisel when making these lines because the chisel gets stuck on the wood grain, leaving little divots.

Next thing I did was stained it Early American by Minwax. To make it look a little more realistic, I put a tack in each corner of each plank.

I'm waiting until I move (which by the way is in less than 3 weeks!) before I attach everything, but I laid it all out so you can at least get an idea of how it will look.

I got the iron star from a local flea market and they will be popping up in other places in his room (stay tuned for that!).

I originally inked just the edges of the letters, but it stood out too much, so I went and inked all over them for a rustic look.

This should make for a great little addition to his room!