Hi! I'm Susan and I blog about decorating, organizing and home and life improvement at LivingRichonLess.com. I originally met Gail at the Haven Conference two years ago and, in case you didn't already know, she is a genuinely sweet, caring person both online and in real life. And since she's still working on getting back to her repurposing self after her recent surgery, I wanted to offer an MRL-worthy DIY project to all her lovely readers.
I discovered this hunk of board on our firewood pile last week.
My husband said he found it under a pile of leaves and assumed it was junk. Silly husband. 😉 It wasn't too warped and it looked usable. So I trimmed the top and bottom on the miter saw to make the length 30 ½ inches. (I kept the width at 11 ½ inches and the depth at about ¾ of an inch.) Then I sanded it on all sides and brushed on a coat of Minwax stain in Jacobean.
While the stain was drying, I created the word art I wanted to stick on the front of it. I used Adobe Photoshop to piece together a collage of words using various fonts. I'm sure you could create something similar using PicMonkey or Gimp. I made the image size 20 inches wide by 30 inches long - the largest poster size available through the Walmart photo lab (for same-day pickup). Because my wood piece was only 11 ½ inches wide, I made sure the word art was no wider than 11 inches. (You'll see why later.)
I'm sure I got a few strange looks from the Walmart photo lab employees considering I had chunks of white space on both sides of my poster. But I just carefully trimmed them off at home.
Next I mounted the word art onto my stained board using Mod Podge (matte finish). This is the part where I held my breath, because it looked like I was ruining everything! 
I applied Mod Podge to the entire top of the photo, too. Luckily, it dried clear. I did make sure to use even strokes with my paintbrush so the texture of the glue was not too visible. Here's the final result: 
You'll notice I left about a quarter inch of the board visible on all four sides in front. I felt this gave it a more finished look. I love that you can see the wood grain on the sides.
So there you have it ... a rescued piece of firewood transformed into an inspirational family mission statement. For a free printable version of this word art as well as a free e-book, head on over to LivingRichonLess.com. And you can also catch me on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Continue to get well, Gail!
Thank you sooo much Susan for a great DIY tutorial today! I LOVE your wall art. I think you made the perfect decision to leave the border all around—it really makes it stand out against the wall color.
gail
Hi, there! I’m Gail, the author and mastermind behind My Repurposed Life. I’m obsessed with finding potential in unexpected places and believe that with a little hard work and imagination, any old thing can be made useful again—myself included! I hope you’ll enjoy the journey and pick up a few tools along the way… literally!
Kylie
Wow! I love this!
Susan
Gail, Thanks so much for featuring my project. Keep getting well!
Katie
Love these beautiful signs!!!
girlfromwva
It is lovely. I like how it turned out; and you were able to save the piece of wood from the burn pile!!
Mindi
I LOVE this, way to rescue a piece of wood!! It turned out beautifully!!