Crafty Imaginings & Silly Things: Lighted Nativity Porch Sign

I love all of the big signs with fun Christmas phrases/words that everyone is posting this year and even after putting up Christmas lights, our porch needed something else. However, I have always wanted a Nativity scene for the front of the house and haven’t found the right one yet. So, I figured…combine the two!!

The best part: I had everything on hand (FREE!) and the whole project only took me a few hours!

Grabbing some old fence boards I had saved in the garage, I started by carefully removing all the rusty nails. I like the rustic look, so I just cleaned them up a bit and lightly sanded down the front. Then, I cut another board into three pieces that fit across the back of the four fence boards. Using wood screws, the boards were attached to the back of the sign.

I left the rough edges and the broken ends because I liked the old look it gave the sign, but you could cut the boards to make clean, straight ends.

I drew a rough sketch with a piece of chalk and filled in the background with a very watered down blue.

Using paint from my craft room stash (and brushes you don’t love…the old fence is pretty rough), I started filling in the chalk lines. I wanted it to look a bit primitive, so I kept the shapes simple and did not do any detail.

Once I was happy with the image, I used chalk to outline my lettering and then filled it in with a glossy black paint.

After seeing several mantel signs on Pinterest with lights, I knew I wanted to include that feature on this porch sign. So, I drilled several holes around the face of the sign and ran a string of lights around the back…putting a bulb through each of the holes I had previously drilled.