Please Remove Your Shoes Sign made with Stir Sticks

Are you ready for a really EASY, SIMPLE and CHEAP way to make yourself a wooden sign??  You can, of course, write anything you want - fun for your child's bedroom doorknob, inside a wreath on your front door, hanging in the kitchen...

My friend asked me to whip her up a quick sign for her front door.  She has three young children, and wanted a polite way to notify people before they came in that they prefer no shoes on in the house.

Instead of making a sign out of thicker, heavier wood, I started looking around my house for something I could use that would be lightweight (and free)!

These large wooden stir sticks - available at your local hardware store - were just the ticket!

I cut mine down to 12" long, and 5 side by side like this makes it about 7" tall.

With the stir sticks face down, I applied a very thin layer of wood glue in between each stick (on that little narrow edge) and pressed them tightly together.
Then, I used the a couple pieces just under 7" as the cross pieces, and glued those onto the back.  While it was drying, to hold it all tightly together, I hammered in a few little nails just partway.  I didn't have any nails short enough that they wouldn't poke through.  Once it was dry I simply pulled the nails out.  Wood glue is SO strong when it dries, there's no need to keep the nails!
If I had had staples for my staple gun that were short enough, I would have used those to hold the sticks together while the glue dried - but I didn't :)

I gave the front a white wash with watered down white acrylic paint...

Then, I sanded the edges and stenciled on the saying my friend wanted.  

Cute little sign, ready for their front door!

I'm already thinking about what other little signs I want to make - this was so fun!

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