Joyeux Noel. {DIY}

  Who doesn't love a good holiday craft? I'm finding my time is really precious these days and I'm opting to buy lots of things instead of making them lately. But that doesn't mean I'm not crafting at all anymore! I'm simply prioritizing. I've got some baby things in the works, a really big housewarming gift {even though you moved in 6 months ago, Lauren!}, and some baby holiday crafts on my current DIY list. And I really wanted to make one nice Christmas decoration this year. 
  I've been eying all those gorgeous rustic-ish wooden signs for a few years now, but never wanted to pay such a large price tag for one. And then I discovered Royal Design Studio's new Christmas collaboration with Jennifer Rizzo and I had my solution! You know I already love Royal Design Studio's stencils {have you seen Caleb's nursery here and here?}, and I absolutely love Jennifer's style. Have you seen her new book? It's full of ideas for decorating your home for Christmas- with real house tours. I'm swooning over all the gorgeous decor! Her stencil line is also gorgeous, and I had a hard time choosing which ones I wanted to try out. My favorites were the classic letters, garland border, and Santa reindeer stencils. They're each so versatile and I have at least half a dozen ideas on how to use them still floating in my head. 

  But for this project, I stuck with the classic letters and garland border.  It was SO easy. The stencils are really durable {same great quality as the one we used on the nursery wall} and simple to use. Besides the stencils, the only thing I had to buy for this project was some red chalk paint- I had everything else on hand! I found the board in our garage, already cut to the size I was looking for, and had all the other paint and brushes from past projects. 

  I started by spraying my board white {after cleaning it off a bit}. I fully planned on leaving it white. I started lightly tracing the letters to gauge spacing and to start lining them up to paint. But then I didn't love that spacing I chose, so I just painted over then entire board with some neutral chalk paint leftover from my bathroom makeover {I love chalk paint right now}. After some good sanding, I kind of fell in love with the accidental color- distressed and pretty! Then I simply lined up my garland stencils, taped it into place, and painted away! Chalk paint is perfect for stencil project because it dries so fast- so the wait time between each garland piece and letter wasn't very long. The rest of the project is pretty self explanatory, right? I painted the other side of the garland and then each letter, one by one. While I chose a more subdued red color and purposefully didn't keep my painting too clean, it was still a little too bright and simple for me. So I used more sandpaper to distress the whole sign some more until I had it just right. And then I immediately propped the sign on my mantel because I'm in love with it! So pretty! And cheap! And easy! All the exclamations!

  It looks pretty perfect between some of my collected nutcrackers. Such a simple project, but I know it will be a Christmas staple around my house for lots of year. A little french wording to remind me of my Christmas spent in France during college and a pretty piece I love even more because I made it myself! 

  This is a sponsored post and I was given complimentary stencils from Royal Design Studio to review. All photos, opinions, and project ideas are 100% my own!