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Country living, DIY, & a Dash of Fun!

St. Patty’s Day Light-Up Pallet Sign

I absolutely LOVE old pallet wood signs, but do you know what I love more???

Old pallet wood signs with a little light up pizzazz!  A sign without lights is like a birthday cake without candles…

…or a ring without bling…

…or, well you get the picture 😉

St Patty’s Day is right around the corner and quite frankly, I’ve neglected the happy green holiday with the little man that runs around chasing rainbows…

I needed something more to add to my sparse St Patty’s Day collection, and came up with this adorable, rustic holiday sign.  I’m just tickled pink (or green) with how it turned out!

(For the full tutorial on how to make the Wooden Peddler’s Flower Cart that my Light-up pallet sign is leaning against, click HERE)

St. Patty’s Day Light-Up Sign Tutorial:

Tools & Supplies:

  • Five 1 x 4s at 3ft 3in long (I used new wood but you can use old pallet wood as well)
  • Two 1x2s at 1ft 3in long (used for the frame)
  • Two 1x2s at 3ft 3in long (used for the frame)
  • Wood screws (1 1/4in long)
  • Black sharpie marker
  • My easy, homemade old wood stain (to make new wood look old and weathered)
  1. Hand drill with bit the same size diameter as tiny bulbs on the string of lights
  2. White paint and paint brush for dry brushing boards (I used acrylic paint)
  3. Green acrylic paint (2 different shades) with a couple different sized round-tipped paintbrushes and a sponge applicator
  4. Large Stencils
  5. Sharpie Marker (for tracing stencils)
  6. String of green battery operated lights with tiny, squared-tipped bulbs (my string came with 30 lights)
  7. Small shamrock stencil (I googled and printed mine off of the internet, then cut it out with an X-acto knife)
  8. Giant Shamrock stencil-I quickly made mine using a heart stencil, which you can download and print HERE
  9. Hot glue gun (to keep lights in place)
  10. Velcro with sticky back adhesive (for attaching battery pack to back of frame)

Battery powered lights vs. Plug-in lights:   Since I prefer having both options of either using batteries to run my lights, or having a cord that plugs into a socket (which will save my batteries), I ordered myself a SWITCH IT plug in (shown in below pic).  This way I can use my batteries for times when my sign is on display where there’s no electric plug-in socket.  If there IS an electric socket nearby, I simply take my batteries out, put in the ‘fake’ batteries (that are attached to my SWITCH IT plug), then plug it into the socket!  (It’s so easy, I just love this thing!)  You can order one HERE.

Let’s make the giant shamrock first:

I made mine by drawing 4 hearts clumped together and then free drawing a stem at the bottom…you can download and print the heart stencil that I used HERE

Cut it all out.

Build the frame:

Assemble all of the wood

Line up the 1x4s

Place 1x2s along edges of 1x4s and screw everything together.

Time to make this new wood look old by brushing on a coat of my homemade old wood stain

(a few minutes later)

Boom!!!  Looks old now 😉

Let’s dry-brush some white paint onto it…

Squeeze some white paint onto a disposable plate

Dab the tip of the dry paintbrush into the paint, not too much though.

Dab off the excess…

Then ‘dry brush’ the paintbrush along the boards, making sure to go with the grain of the wood.

The boards should look like this when you’re done.  Looks like weathered wood with an old paint job.  Perfect!

Lay out the giant shamrock and stencils.

Trace the shamrock with a sharpie marker.

Using a smaller paintbrush with a roundish tip, paint the edges of the shamrock, tracing all the way around

Paint the inside with the larger paintbrush

For the smaller stencils I used a sponge applicator…I also did the letters in a slightly different shade of green to give contrast

I need some more little shamrocks so I quickly googled them, then printed and cut my new stencils out with an X-acto knife

Again, I used the sponge applicator to add my little shamrocks

Since I used a light-colored green for the ‘LUCKY’, I traced around the letters with a black sharpie marker to make them stand out better.

 

Now let’s add the lights.  Find a drill bit that’s the same size around as the tiny lights.

Since I used a string of 30 lights, I spaced out 30 marks where my holes would go.

Flip the frame over and start pushing the lights into the holes

I put a small bead of hot glue on the back of each light to hold them in place

To keep the battery pack attached, I simply used some sticky-backed adhesive Velcro

…one piece of Velcro on the battery pack, and the other piece on the wood, works like a charm!

Now flip the lights on.  Happy St Patty’s Day!!!

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19 Comments

  1. Tom

    Thank you Tiffany for the directions! This turned out great and I get a lot of compliments on it. Nice idea!

  2. Angelina

    I LOOOOOOOVE This! Thanks for sharing your awesome idea! I’m making this for sure!

  3. Tara

    This light up sign is so cool! Awesome idea!

    • Tee

      Thanks Tara!!! Would love to see your after pics when you are finished! (you can download a pic right here in the comments section)

  4. Great tutorial Tiffany! I’ll be using this as one of my features this Saturday at the Snickerdoodle link party!

    • Tee

      Thank you so much Roseann, for visiting and for featuring my St. Patty’s Day Sign! You made this heart happy! <3 Hugs!

  5. How fun! Thanks for sharing at Vintage Charm!

  6. What a great tutorial, Tiffany! This turned out super cute! Thank you bunches for linking up with us this week! xoxo

  7. Oh, how cute is that? Love the lights!! Thanks so much for linking up with me at the Unlimited Monthly Link Party 22. Pinned!

  8. I love the light up shamrock!

  9. That’s darling! Thanks for sharing at Vintage Charm!

  10. Tee,
    I love this shamrock sign. Pinned for next year. Congratulations, you are being featured on Over The Moon Linky Party. I hope you stop by. https://www.eclecticredbarn.com/2021/03/over-moon-linky-party.html
    Have a lovely week ahead.
    Hugs,
    Bev

  11. CONGRATS! Your post is FEATURED at my Unlimited Monthly Link Party 23!

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