Paris Sign for a Giveaway at "simply vintageous"

My blogging friend Suzan of simply vintageous has just reached 1000 followers through Google Friend Connect and asked if I would participate in a giveaway at her blog.

The gift had to be something Paris related, so this is what I came up with, and how I made it.

I used a piece of poplar, which is available at most crafting type stores.  It's 1/4" thick and I cut it to 6" wide and 7 1/2" long:

Because I am going to distress this sign, first I put a base coat of black craft paint over the wood, including the sides (painting the back black wasn't necessary):

After this dried, I put a coat of white craft paint, the coverage was not so good (going over black), so I also added a second coat.  This shows just the first coat:

While this was drying, I printed out a Paris graphic.  Unfortunately I don't know where I got this Eiffel tower, but there are many similar ones you can find by simply typing "Paris Graphic" into your search engine. I added the word Paris underneath using the font "Edwardian Script" and scaled it all to the right size for this sign.

Then I put carbon paper between the printed sheet and the board:

Trace over everything with a sharp pencil, this transfers the design to the wood:

Here's what the whole design looks like once transferred:

After looking at that I thought it looked too plain, so I added some "flourishes" around each corner:

Then I used a fine brush and black craft paint and painted over all the carbon markings:

Many of the items I sell are distressed, and I thought it was more appropriate for Suzan and this project, so I lightly sanded over the whole piece, including the sides.  I hope you can see the difference this makes to this sign:

I added two "eyes" screwed into the top, and a small black chain for a hanger:

You can win this sign by going to the blog simply vintageous... by Suzan and entering her contest.

Also sharing at:
Three Mango Seeds
Knick of Time