This weekend, I was able to do something a little outside of my comfort zone. I painted and distressed my own wooden sign. It was a wonderful night and I definitely will be doing it again.

So for starters, this was kind of an expense for a college student. The night costs you $50, this may vary depending on where you go. But, they do make you stencils for your words, customize your paint, and walk you through everything step by step. Plus, they provide all the materials, so the cost ends up being worth it.

The working area consists of two people to a table and long rows, my class had around 30 people at it. My mom came with me and we sat together. (SUCH a great mother-daughter experience!!) This is a lot of custom sign stencil printing and paint mixing! When I first arrived, I had to go find my sign and make sure I had the brushes and materials necessary.

Next they had us tell what kind of color scheme we wanted and the workers would tell us what will look good paired together and what may not be what we want it to be like. Mine ended up being a little darker than I anticipated, but I totally love it.

After we had painted and dried our base color came the crazy stuff: distressing. This was as much or as little as we wanted and it consisted of pounding our boards with a variety of objects to make different shapes and a sander. I stuck with just sanding parts of my board, but that may also be because in my head I was terrified of doing something I didn't want and not being able to fix it. Next time, I may be more adventurous.

Next, on go the stencils and you decide on colors for your lettering. This step is much trickier than you think, but the workers are extremely helpful in making sure you place everything on correctly and don't over or under paint your works. After you peel away the stencil you can make whatever adjustments you want and blow dry the board one final time. Then voila! You've done it.

I loved this atmosphere and the experience I had here. I am even planning on going again in the future, but next time making a more name personalized kind of board... Either way, I encourage you to get your friends together and go try an activity like this. It's a memory you won't forget!