Fall/Thanksgiving Feather Slat Board Sign

Have you ever had that moment when you pull something out of storage and find that it is in pieces?  This happened to me a few weeks ago.  I was pulling out my Thanksgiving decorations and as I lifted up my large Gather shutter it came apart in a million pieces!!!  I wanted to cry! My Gather shutter was a key decoration for my front porch, and it was broken beyond repair.  As I stood there looking at all the shutter slats everywhere, I realized that they could be repurposed and made into something different and, I had a large void to fill on my porch.  I decided to create another smaller sign that I could hang in the spot where I would place my large gather shutter.  This is how the Fall/Thanksgiving Feather Slat Board Sign came to be.

First I gathered 16 shutter slats, I know most people won’t have these on hand.  You could use lathing sticks or any thin slim pieces of wood you have on hand.  I laid the 16 slats side by side and put a line of hot glue in between each slat to glue them together.  Now that I had a nice slat board made, I flipped it over and painted the board a mustard yellow color.

Next I cut some lathing sticks to create a frame for my Fall/Thanksgiving Feather Slat Board Sign using my jig saw.  I cut 2 pieces at 12 1/2 inches long and 2 more sticks at 16 inches long.  I mixed together some brown paint and water to create a faux stain and, painted the lathing sticks with my faux stain.  After the faux stain was dry I glued them to my 16 shutter slats.

Using my personal cutting machine,  I found a template for a feather in the online silhouette store.  I cut the feather design out of 2 different colors of vinyl.  For the base feather I used a turquoise color and the top detailed layer I used a rustic orange color.  I applied the feather design to my slat board off to the left side at a slant.  Then I cut the word gather out of dark brown vinyl, I used the great vibes font.  Last I placed the word gather over the top of my feather design.

You could place this Fall/Thanksgiving Feather Slat Board Sign on a mantle or entry table.  I will be attaching a ribbon to the back of my sign and hanging it outside on my front porch.

How do you like to decorate for Thanksgiving?