five-dollar challenge: before and after

This challenge was a toughie. 

Living with Lindsay issued a blogger diy Five-dollar Challenge a few weeks ago. It seemed like a simple task at first; here were her only rules:

1. You may only spend $5 out-of-pocket (not including sales tax).

2. Your $5 may only be spent at a "dollar store." 

3. You may also use items you already have around the house, such as tools and supplies.

The trick for me was coming up with an idea that would suit our decor, using only items found in the Dollarama. Easier said than done.

So I started with this little sign ($1):

Husband liked it as-is. "It's true!" he said. He's very excited about adopting our new addition in a few weeks!

Then I got paint and brushes — it appears that I went over budget here, but I only used two colours of paint (so $3 more spent in this pic):

I painted the sign red to go with our kitchen decor:

Then, for my free, diy stencil, I printed out the words in the font I wanted and carefully cut them out with an Xacto knife. It was tricky to keep the paper steady while trying not to let the paint bleed around the lines. 

Here is the final result:

I added a bit of ribbon to cover up the nail. And voila! New, personalized sign for our entry — and for only $4!