I got the plain wood sign at Hobby Lobby for $1.79 (using a 40% off coupon, of course), and also picked up some DecoArt Americana acrylic paint in Navy Blue. I painted the sign with a thin layer of paint, and once it was dry, sanded it with 220 sandpaper. The next step was to wipe it down with a damp paper towel to pick up all the wood and paint dust. Next, I painted a layer of Plaid FolkArt acrylic paint in Licorice, let it dry, and then sanded and wiped again. I repeated step one (for a third layer of paint), and once that had been sanded and wiped, I was ready to add my words.
I designed the words in Silhouette Studio. Once hubby and I agreed on the phrases and the fonts (Copperplate Goth and Pharmacy), I used my Cameo to cut the design on Oracal 631 White (010) vinyl. Weeding (removing unnecessary vinyl from the design) the Pharmacy font was tricky, because some of the letters are pretty narrow. I took my time and, amazingly, I didn't get too flustered. I applied the transfer paper, lined it up on the sign, and applied the vinyl to the wood.
I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. Hubby promises to hang it near the doorbell. And then hopefully the new sign will work its magic!