Now That's More Like It

Last week, I revealed my DIY Family Established sign in this post.  I was not very pleased with the final product, and just KNEW there had to be a better way to conquer this guy.  In case you missed it, here is what it looked like in its blah state:

Well, have no fear loyal readers (and you not so loyal readers as well...we don't discriminate around here), I had an epiphany this past weekend.  My main problem with the above sign was the size of the letters, but I had searched high and low for bigger stamps to no avail.  To solve my little dilemma, I just wrote my four simple words in Word (I used Bookman Old Style, size 150) and printed them out.  Afterwards, I cut each word out separately and taped them to the back of my glass, so I could see the letters when I flipped it over.  Like this:

from the back

and from the front (note th missing a/m I had to freehand!)

Oh shoot, let me backtrack for a second.  You may be wondering how I managed to get rid of my previous lettering.  Nothing a little plastic knife scraping and a lovely coat of Goo-Gone couldn't solve.  Good as new!

Now back to my process...so once the words were nicely taped to the underside of the glass, I just used a thin paintbrush to carefully paint over the letters.  It was actually a really easy process and took me all of about 10 minutes.  Here it is mid-process (well, more like 95% process...I get so excited I forget to take pictures...anyone else?):

Once done, I just removed the paper outlines, put the glass back in the frame, and hung it back up.  Actually, my "family" was a little off the first time (you may have noticed it in the above pictures, but of course, I was so excited to get started, I didn't until it was already painted) ...so it was back to some plastic knife scraping, repositioning, and repainting.  But now here is the new and improved DIY Family Established Sign hung in all its glory:

Yay!  And for the budget breakdown:

• frame............$4 (CHKD thrift store)
• acrylic paint.......$1
• spray paint.....FREE (already owned)
• words........FREE (just hit print)
• GRAND TOTAL: $5!!!

So, what do you all think?  Much better, huh?