I wanted to share with you our latest wood project. With this project, we went and got a free pallet from Lowes Improvement store. Here is how we created this look:

1) My husband took the pallet apart
2) He used two other pieces of wood on nailed them into the back of the piece running the other direction, creating one solid piece.
3) I painted the front and sides of all the boards a white semi gloss color (something I already had on hand)
4) I then applied a coat of dark colored stain (left over from our wood wall) and let it sit for about 2 minutes and then wiped it off. Keep as much or as little on, for the effect you want. I personally took a lot of it off. Note, since I was putting stain on paint, it really never dries - more about this in a minute
5) We let it sit for about 4 days and then my artsy husband got to work. He typed up the words in the font and size he wanted. He then printed them out and then traced on the back of the paper using a graphite pencil and it created a stencil on the wood, which he then painted in. He free handed the trees on both sides. (He had to be careful where he touched since we had stain on wood).
6) Since the stain is always a little tacky, as it was applied to wood, I sprayed 2 coats of poly on the entire piece so that you it can be touched. 
7) To attach it to the wall, we screwed hooks into the back of the piece and attached heavy wire between the two hooks and then hung it on the wall.

For us, this was a free project since we had everything on hand and got the pallets for free!