Ducks in a Row :: Illuminating House Numbers for the Holidays

Today I am featuring a guest poster, Laurel, from Ducks in a Row.  She so graciously offered to swap holiday projects with me.  I posted for her, she posted for me!  Fun!  I love her idea of illuminated house numbers…our porch is very dark and could use a spotlight like this!  Here is Laurel (and her adorable children!)…
This year, we have some large get togethers.  I cannot tell you how many people knock on our door and say they went to our neighbor's door first.  That was not going to happen.  We made these House Number boxes to put outside.  I have been wanting to do this since I saw it in Martha Stewart in 2007!
Martha makes everything look very easy.  This is how it really went down.  I typed up numbers I like, in a font that was the perfect size for the square boxes I had.  I realized I was out of toner, so I had to hold up a piece of paper to the monitor and trace.  I'm sure Martha never has to do that!
I cut out the letters, and traced them onto the boxes.
I used my xacto knife and cut them out - not too perfectly, mind you.  I taped a piece of vellum behind it.
Next, I asked my engineer husband to figure out some way to string white Christmas lights to each box.  I love it when he helps me.  I was thinking of cutting holes in the back, sticking some lights in and using tape.  He was thinking of some frame/stake to slide the boxes on, and it just got more complicated from there!  After reading the Sunday paper, he saw the Big Lots add and told me to run down and get some battery tea lights - genius!
We used 3-4 for each box.
The lids hung down a little long, so I cut off an inch to show the numbers.  I guarantee that Martha's helpers are nowhere as near as cute, nor as dedicated as my little helpers are.
At night, we put a big rock in them and put them on our porch.  I love the personalized look they give.  And I love that the project took less than $10 and the impact is huge!
Thank you Ashley.  One of my favorite things about blogging is not only all the friends I find that have similar mind sets, but all the amazing inspiration that comes from it.  I do hope that you will find time to stop by my blog, Ducks in a Row, and become a new friend!

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DSC_0298-1 Thank you Laurel!  Be sure to stop by Ducks in a Row today to see my Coffee Filter Snowflake project and say hello to Laurel! 

What holiday project are you working on right now?