DIY Christmas mini marquee sign

Lighting is amazing. It can totally transform a space in seconds, and getting your lighting right is , in my opinion, the most important thing you can for your home.

That said, I am a sucker for a good lighting DIY, so when the lovely people at wayfair.co.uk approached me to see if I would like to create a Christmas craft tutorial for them (and I was like "hell yes!") it took about 0.00003 of a second for me to decide that this was what I would do. 

I've made one of these before and I love it so much that I really wanted a Christmas-specific one, plus I didn't do a proper tutorial first time round so this gave me the opportunity to remedy that.

The tutorial is live over on the wayfair site now, so if you want to find out to make this really cheap, easy and effective little sign then click the link and head on over ;)

http://www.wayfair.co.uk/Inspiration/Festive-DIY-Marquee-Sign-E10112

Disclaimer: I was given some items from the wayfair website free of charge in return for providing this tutorial but all opinions are, as always, totally my own. I only work with companies I really love and I think you will love too! Thank you for supporting the companies that support Make Do and DIY.

DIY mini marquee sign!

 I've always been obsessed with marquee signs (blame my carny heritage), I think they can add such incredible drama and interest to a space, and also I firmly believe that there is no such thing as too much lighting, so there's that....

However, anytime I've seen proper marquee signs for sale they have always run into the hundreds of euros, and as my budget for something so frivolous is pretty non-existent I knew if I wanted one I'd just have to make it myself. (Also, I always seem to take it as a personal insult when I see things that I KNOW are simple and inexpensive to make going for such high prices. Mostly when I try to make these things there's a big element of "I'll show you!"...I know, I have issues)

So, I know that at some point in the future I want to make a proper, large scale marquee sign with full size bulbs, but first I thought I'd try my hand at making something really simple, with supplies anyone could get in a good stationary shop, and this is what I came up with.....

It cost me less than €12 all told, and I think it looks great! It really gives the effect of a proper marquee sign but is small enough that it can go on any mantel/shelf. Plus it's battery powered so it doesn't need to be anywhere near a socket, bonus!

First, I bought cardboard letters from a local stationers for €1.95 each....

 and sprayed them gold with this paint.......

I used a craft knife to slice off the back of these (be careful!), and then poked holes where I wanted the lights to come through. I didn't take a pic of this stage but you can see in this photo of the finished sign from the back what I ended up with.

Then I hot glued the letters to a piece of scrap wood that I had also painted gold, to form a base for the light.

And finally, I poked the battery powered LED lights through the holes I'd made. I got the lights in Penneys at Christmas and I used 2 sets, totaling 60 lights and costing €3.60, but any small LED string lights will work. (I would advise stocking up on those lights any time you see them, I'm constantly finding new uses for them)

And there you have it! I LOVE it, I think it looks really impressive for something that cost less than €12 and took just an hour to make. It was one of those ideas that just worked out really well, and I had a lot of fun making it.






                                  

What do you think? :)

Linda xxxx

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