How to make a Heart Marquee Sign

I have been wanting a marquee sing for a while and they always seem to be out of my price range. I especially wanted one for my little girl room who is soon to come to this world. I took the bull by the horns as they say and decided to try my hands on making one. I did not want to make mine out of chip board as most tutorial I see because I have children who like to touching everything and wood would last a lot longer.

The only difficult part about making the sign out of wood is knowing what you are doing. I had to get my hubby to do it for me, especially since I have a belly and it seem to get in the way a lot.

The first thing he did was draw a heart for our baby girl. We had purchased a plank of wood at Home Depot initial for a shelf but decided to use it for this instead.

 Once he had cut it out for me, I used Tim Holtz Distress Paint stains to color the wood. I used barn door distress paint which dried super fast.

Now the fun part which is to cut all the holes. The light that I used came in a set of 25 which I thought I would be able to fit into my heart however, I forgot I need enough space between each bulb. So I was only able to fit 16 bulbs and let the rest hang.

Just remember to drill from the back instead of the front because the wood started to split from the front and it did not look so nice. But I did not care how the back looked like. 

I used a 3/4 drill bit to make the holes on the wood to make the lights fits.

I found the lights at Target. They are outside globe bulbs and they can light up your entire room easily.

Before I place the bulb in the sign I used a stencil made of cardstock which I used my cameo silhouette to cut it out with and then painted it white.

After a couple of touch ups and its all done!

Now my little girl will feel the love we have for her when she arrives.  

Stay Crafty,