Marquee Sign Winter Windowscape

Two blog posts in one week?!?! I've had the week off and have seen very little of most of my house...because I've been holed up in my craft studio most days. It' bee  good week of getting projects finished. Today's post is a fun marquee-style sign, a trend that is oh-so-hot right now.  I have this display window that I change out several times a year for the various seasons. I din't get around to doing anything special for Christmas, so with the start of a new year, I cooked up a little something fun that's sure to last me through the next couple er, few ahem, SEVERAL months since I kept it a generic winter theme. Sad but true! First I'm going to show step-by-step how I made the marquee-inspired "Winter" sign, then I'll show you the whole windowscape. 

I got the idea for a cheap, lightweight and inexpensive marquee letter from this blog post. I started with a paper maché "W". 

I used an X-acto knife to carefully cut of the top layer of cardboard and removed the filler inside (which is just a strip of cardboard that gives the shape some structure.)

I then painted the letter with white chalk paint. Once the white was dry, I added an oxidizing iron paint to the inside and outside seams where I wanted the letter to look rusted and give the impression that the cardboard was actually a rusted metal sign letter. This is the product I used to get the rust finish.

Once the oxidizing paint dried, I brushed on the rusting solution. I also brushed on some of my own rusting brew. I use this on wood, paint, paper. It's cool stuff if you want to make things looked aged. Here's what the letter looked like after those steps. I have a feeling the rust will continue to develop even weeks from now. I've used this product before and that is exactly what happened.

I decided where to punch the holes for the lights by drawing a grid on the back like this:

Now, I'm making this lighted letter into a sign that says "winter:" I had prepared a small wooden plaque by gluing three unmatched strips of wood together and giving them an aging treatment using a combination of steps including my rusting brew, beeswax and brown shoe polish and sanding. That's how we roll! Once I had the placement for my lights figured out on the W, I laid it over the plaque where I wanted it to go and transferred the holes with a drill. I drilled all the way through to the other side so I could feed one LED light through each hole.

I had purchased this cool little light set at Hobby Lobby specifically designed to make mini marquee lighted signs. Perfect! Who knew they made such things? It looks way more authentic than just having exposed LED bulbs. I tried to find the product on Hobby Lobby's website so I could give you a link directly to the item I purchased, but I couldn't find it. I did switch out the string of lights that came with the kit for one that was on a timer. I got these on deep discount at Joann Fabric around Christmas time. They're perfect for the location of my window, since it's way up on the wall in our split entry level and I would not be dragging out my 7' ladder every time I wanted to turn the lights on! This way, they come on at 4 o'clock every afternoon and turn off automatically at 10. I love these little lights!

I inserted one light into each clear bulb and on the back side of the plaque I arranged the remaining bulbs. I CAREFULLY stapled the extra cording down so it would stay tucked away out of sight.

And here it is!

Lighted too. 

At this point I still had to had to add the i-n-t-e-r part of "winter". I did this with vinyl cut on my Cricut. Here is the whole window put together.

I also cut out the word "wonderland" because, well, we live in Minnesota, we might as well embrace winter!

My tongue-in-cheek take on the "wonderland" part of "winter wonderland"!

Another string of "uber" mini LED lights on a wire, found at Bachman's. These are also on a timer, so, perfect! It adds such a nice warm glow at night.

There you have it. I should be good until at least April!