Sesame Street Post Sign Tutorial

..Hey Everyone..

So the time Has come to share this awesome tutorial that "The Man" and Myself have put together for you guys!  I really hope you all enjoy this post.

** UPDATE **  I have been getting a lot of the same questions.  Please look through the comments for questions you may have before contacting me.  If your question hasn't been asked I will make sure I address it.  Other then that if I get questions that I have already answered I will most likely not respond.  But Fear NOT!  Your question is answered in another comment post.  So please read through. :)

 The List

• Stair Post
• Stair Post molding
• Quart of Grass Green Paint
• Sylvania DOT it Touch LED light
• 3.5"X 24" Pine board 
• Plastic White Globe Light cover
• 12" Small Gold Chain
• 2 1/4"- 10X2" :Dowel Screws
• 4 5/8" gold wood round head screws
• 2 Plaques 1- 8x10" 1- 11x14"
• 7/8" wood rod
• 2 1-1/2" Ball Knobs
• Wood Glue
• Wood putty
• Black paint
• Yellow paint
• White Vinyl letters and numbers

Step One:
You will want to take your stair post and cut off the top ball.  It should look something like the right picture.  The Left is your before.

You can place your light over on the post to see how it will look and hold up after you made the cut.  Doesn't that look so cool!?  I thought so. ;) 

Step Two: You will take a ruler and make an X on opposite sides of the top post to locate your center to drill a hole.  IT should look just like the two pictures below. 

Step Three:

Step Four:  
After you have cut the pole and placed it through the hole you have previously drilled.  You will want to begin  gluing the 2 plaques together with wood glue and then for extra support take 4 regular screws and screw up from the bottom, make sure that you sink the screws so they don't make the final piece wobble.  Open up your post molding kit and follow the instruction on how to attach it to the post and the plaques.  If there is any gaps take some more wood putty and fill in the edges.  Sand down all rough edges and any putty that may have dried bumpy. Take your wood knobs and the 2 dowel screws and place one on each end of the rod.  ( It helps to pre-drill when using dowel screws ) Putty around the edges almost like your sealing it.  After it is all dry your ready for paint!

Step Five:

Paint and Paint and PAINT until you think it is fully covered.   Take your black paint and do a dry brush technic.  This will make it look like metal and weather worn.

After the paint is dry and cured to the wood take your LED touch light (found at Home DEPOT) And peel off the velcro and attach it to the post as well as the bottom of the light.

Step Six:   Take your pine board and measure out 14-3/8", Draw a line and cut. Use the res t of the pine  board  and take a cup and  create a half circle.  Use a jigsaw to cut out your  half circle. Once it is cute sand the  edges so it's smooth.  Take the wood glue and glue the half circle (in the center) to the 3.5 x 14-3/8" board.

Step Seven: 

 Paint the signs front and back and sides!  ( You can paint both sides if your planing on making the  lamp go either way.) Hand paint a yellow stripe to outline the sign as I did to the left.  I used my Cricut to cut out numbers and letters in vinyl but you can paint them.  I also think you can find vinyl letters and numbers at your local hardware store, but I'm not sure how the size will match up.  If  you have a Cricut, I recommend the Street Sign Cartridge.

Step Eight:  Attach the sign to the pole. The first thing we did was take two eyelet screws and measured in a inch and screwed them in. We took string and made a loop on each eyelet and hunt it on the pole to find out where I wanted the sign to line up.  Then made a mark where the strings lined up on the pole for the other two Eyelet screws and screwed them in the bottom of the pole.  We decided that 5 chain links was enough for our sign.  But it all depends on how you all want yours to look in the end.

Step Nine:  
place your plastic globe on the post and mark four spots where you will pre-drill through the plastic for your gold screws.  We did one hole opposite of the other so it had a sort of balance to it.  Be low is a picture of the size "The Man" drilled. 

Place the globe back on the post and screw the 4 gold screws in the holes.  Not too tight, as you will want it easy to access to get to the light underneath the globe.   And there you have it!  A personalized Sesame Street Lamp.  AB loves hers!  At night time it looks so awesome.  

 

Almost everything we bought for this project can be found at Home Depot.  The only things that I got else where were the Wood knobs and the 2 plaques which I got at JoAnns. (They take as many coupons as you have to give) I really hope you all create one of these and please link back to this post so I can see all the lovely Personalized Posts you have made.  But until then, Keep creating, living and Obsessing!

Linky Parties!