Farmhouse Gather Sign + Stenciling Video

Hi there! Welcome to Day #3 of the 12 Days of Christmas 🙂 Today I’ll be sharing a farmhouse “Gather” sign, not so different from many others that I’ve made in the past, but with a small, but simple twist that pumps up the interest level a notch or two.

On Day #1 we toured a Christmas craft show and on Day #2, I shared a simple Christmas craft project. I have to admit that even though I’m physically still struggling after my gallbladder removal, I’m starting to get into the spirit of things. How about you?

I love the word “gather” for the holidays. It is the closest that one word can come to expressing what this time of year means to me: Family and friends gathering together to celebrate, along with some good food and mabybe a blazing fire. Add a reading of the nativity story (Matthew 1:18-2:12 is a favorite) and you have a perfect evening.

As a result, gather is the one word that I pick most often whenever I’m making a sign. I guess it’s what you’d call my go-to word.

Unfortunately I don’t have a before shot of my scrap wood, but I pick up boards of wood that promise to make suitable signs whenever I can.

I LOVE free, but I’ll pay a buck for a good piece, especially if it’s already painted in a color I like. This piece was unfinished–nothing special, so I painted it with two coats of acrylic craft paint in “antique white.”

The gather stencil that I used was a gift from Angie at Vintage Sign Stencils, and I highly recommend her products for both their quality and creativity. You can watch my short Stenciling 101 video for a few pointers:

After stenciling, I lightly sanded down to the brown board here and there, but the whiteness of the antique white paint still bothered me, so I decided to give it a couple of coats of homemade dark wax, buffing in between each coat.

Much better. But my sign still didn’t have a “WOW” factor, so I decided to search through my stash of metal fittings and other doo-hickies for possible embellishments.

Since I was going for a farmhouse look, I wanted something simple, rather than fancy to add to my sign.

I finally settled on a pair of old hinges and decided to add one to each side.

I made pilot holes for the screws and scrounged through jars of old screws to find six the right size and color (“rust” of course!).

The hinges on each edge added just the rustic charm I was looking for.

I actually made this sign around Thanksgiving–another season of gathering–but never had the opportunity to post about it until now. Despite photographing it with some fall doo-dads, it will nonetheless add nicely to my Christmas decor as well. More photos to come!