DIY Be My Guest Sign

As with most of my projects, the idea for this one came from some great finds on Pinterest. Here are the pictures of my pinspiration: 

Who doesn't love them some Beauty and the Beast inspired home decor?! 

Obviously the first step would be to find the lettering and all the supplies for creating this project: 

I picked out a scrapbook paper color palette to go with my guest bedroom. 

Then I wanted to have the mixed metals so I found some great keys made for scrapbooking and various sparkles (a must have in any crafting project.) 

{This is where you make it your own! Get CREATIVE. :)}

After you have all the supplies it's time for the planning of what goes where with the scrapbook paper. I'm a perfectionist, so this part takes way more time than necessary. 

Yep, as you can see in the picture, I also did the word "our"... hopefully for a change out in the future, if ya know what I mean. Or if I feel like selling it later it's good to go. 

Once everything is planning out, it's time to cut out the letters. I just turned over the paper, kept the letter backwards, and traced in on with pencil. 

I wanted a border to appear, so I cut on the inside of the pencil lines. 

After making sure everything fits, put the letters aside and it's time to paint where the borders and edges will be seen underneath. 

These letters seemed to be made of mixed material, somewhere between a cardboard and wood. It absorbed paint very well, so multiple coats were needed. 

Then it is time to glue the letters to the wood. Now, I have a bad track record with Modge Podge and paper... it gets the paper soggy, it bubbles up, and I cry. But this time I gave it a try only because I found out the line that is specifically for paper! Lifesaver. And Kleenex saver. 

The trick is to use a foam brush and put in on the back of the paper for the first coat! It barely takes any Modge Podge at all, and it sticks almost right away. The instructions say to apply top coats after 2 hours, but I was so happy with the way it looked (and didn't want to chance ruining it) that I kept it this way. 

Now comes the FUN part! Embellish, bling, and twine away!

(The switch from Be MY Guest to Be OUR Guest) 

This is my initial vision of putting the new sign on the bookshelf in my guest bedroom... but I may come up with another way to display it as well. 

Although it was a timely project, it was so much fun to make something that is completely and uniquely my own! 

Take my ideas and create something even better... I would love to see what you come up with. :)