JESUS

She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.   –Matthew 1:21

Wood and nails seemed to be the natural choice for the name of Jesus.

A slightly crooked, rustic barn board was the perfect backdrop for a bucketful of broken and bent square nails.

On a crafting note, E6000 is our friend! We used this glue on many of the signs. This sign was my first test case for the glue, and I wanted to test its' holding power. I glued a nail to another board, let it dry overnight, and tried to pry it off.  Then I tried to hammer it off. The nail stayed attached to the wood, but I broke off an edge of the board.  I took this as a positive sign and we used it faithfully.

MESSIAH

Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."   –Matthew 16:16


The beautiful name "Messiah" was listed early on in our plans as an "add if we have time" name. We had several names that we thought were notable and important that didn't make it on our initial lists due to time and materials.

Even after we called the project complete, I decided to make one more. How could we present the room on Easter Sunday without "Messiah"?

When Chewie offered this beautiful wire for the nail art letters on Good Shepherd, I tried several methods to make it work, but ended up using the jute twin for that sign. This beautiful brass wire was destined for another name.

The Steps:

• Board prep. First I dug through the rubble that began as a sizable wood pile to find a few more boards. I came up with two table leaves, which weren't very appealing. I sanded most of the varnish off and then applied a heavy coat of mahogany stain, i.e., I dumped about a cup of stain onto the boards. Then I used a brush to streak the stain to give it a wood grain look, then let the whole mess dry.
• Letters. This was more of the same, just using a different "string". I chalked letters onto the board, then wiped them off until they were barely visible. Then I nailed brass tacks to form the letter outlines. I followed a more consistent pattern when I strung the wire to give it a more uniform mesh appearance.