PRINCE OF PEACE

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.  –Isaiah 9:6 (KJV)

Did I mention one of our team is a professional? Wendy paints and sells pallet signs. She's become very accomplished with hand-painting lettering, and after one or two of my own botched attempts, I turned the rest of the painted letters over to her. 

Here's a simplified version of the steps (excluding any mistakes and back-tracking):

1. Clean and repair windows and use a sander to add some texture and reveal the wood.

2. Apply a walnut stain and quickly remove it with a rag. The stain soaks into the exposed wood but adds only a light finish to the painted surfaces.

3. Paint the glass with chalkboard paint–once or twice will suffice.

4. Lightly dust/sand the chalkboard-painted glass to "age" it.

5. Paint the letters–two or three times.

Hah! If only it were that simple! We're clearly amateurs (at everything except painting the letters). In real chronological order, the steps went like this: 1 (clean), 3, 4, 1 (sand), 3, 4, 1 (repair), 3 (right side this time), 4, 2, 5.