Progress on farm sign

I'm hard at work on the hand painted sign for our farm.  I know why the one that we priced was so expensive now!  It is alot of work but I am happy with it so far.  This is how I am making my own farm sign:

I already had the sign assembled out of old cedar boards and painted white.

I worked up lettering in Microsoft Publisher and printed them out until I found the right size.  I also printed our brand in "poster" size which printed in "tile pieces".  Then I spaced them out just right. 

Sorry about the scribbling!  You understand why I wouldn't want the whole address on net, don't you?

Then I cut and cut and cut out the letters.  I grew impatient with this and moved on.  I still have lots more cutting to do.

I traced around each letter.  After that, I moved the letter up and a little to the left and traced a shadow.  Did you know it is hard to write on rough wood?

Here I am painting the address.  For the shadow I mixed the black with some exterior white and used a smaller brush.  After looking at lots of pictures of old signs we discovered that there is always a white line between the letter and the shadow so I did that too. 

The brand is finished in the middle of the sign.  We seem to be putting it on everything except our animals.  We just can't help ourselves though, it's just so cool to have one. 

Now, I have to do the top of the sign.  I think I am going to have to work upside down to reach it.  That should be fun. I'll show the end result when it is hanging on the fence.  I painted the entrance today so it would be ready.