Ghost of Spookie,
I have a corner yard and yes, the Circus was on a small part of the side yard and the main entry was in front. As for the wooden posts, they're all dropped in the ground about 22". I found a bunch of long pallets with 10' timbers and cut them apart. We have real good soil, so digging the holes with a small post hole digger went quick.
Making the open channel lettering wasn't too difficult. I found a font I liked, projected the below image on some scrap plywood, traced and cut it out. For the flashing, Lowe's sells 6" x 10' rolls. I made a miter box to hold it and cut 2 rolls in half with a Sawzall. This gave me 40' of 3" flashing. The sign used 30'. Using the wood as the form, I shaped it to fit. Where the metal has sharp bends, I used a piece of wood cut in a triangle to fold over. I attached the metal to the plywood with a brad nailer and where the metal came back together, I used two aluminum rivets. After brushing the inside with a thick white primer, I sprayed the inside with Rustoleum Colonial Red and the outside with Rustoleum Gold Rush. For the lights, I simply eyeballed light locations and drilled. (I prefer a less than perfect look) The part that took the longest was taking apart a new cord set and relocating all the sockets to eliminate any extra cord between each bulb. The 8' rails that hold the letters are a gray composite lattice edging for plastic lattice. It's available at the home centers.