My Beloved

The newest sign from the garage. This one is made from reclaimed wood I acquired during a skillful dumpster dive. If only that were an Olympic sport, I'd rock it!   

What's Your Sign?

I've really enjoyed getting to do some family rules signs over the last couple of months, and this latest one for Shar was my favorite! I loved the process and how it all turned out.

She wanted an anniversary/valentine's day present for her husband centered around a love/marriage theme. And she needed size gigantor. (6ftx2.5ft) to be exact and a rustic red finish. I would have loved to have a large sheet of beat up plywood still on hand that size, but I didn't, and in the end I was so glad.

I started with several pieces of nice, smooth pine boards of varying widths, and used the kreg jig to secure them together.  In retrospect I used a few too many holes and screws, but I did want to make sure it was solid.

Then I flipped it over and went to town distressing it. I beat it up an took my angle grinder to it to rough up the ends and do a lot of damage. Then I slathered it with a blue base coat...

and added in some greens for some more dimension. 

The next step was giving that a good light sanding, and over sanding in strategic places to reveal the wood underneath.  After that I mixed together some paint remnants to get just the right red.

then more sanding to reveal some of that lovely blue!

Then we were ready for words. I created a mock up in Adobe InDesign and with the help of a projector, got everything on there just right. I used a paint pen to do the basic outline, then went in and painted in all the lettering. When that was all dry, I gave it another quick sanding, with emphasis on the already worn places for consistency.  Shar had a great idea of adding her kids handprints to the sign, so they came over one afternoon to add that.  When it was all dry and sanded just right I gave it a good coat of polyurethane to seal the deal. Here's the finished product!

Christmas Relief

I may not have mentioned this before, but my daddy is AWESOME! First he instilled in me a love for the smell of lumber, hallelujah. My favorite thing when I was a kid was to walk over to the local hardware store on the weekends to browse or buy a couple things. My dad has always been Mr. Fix-It, a Jack of all Trades. His tool collection is a thing of beauty...and you can never have too many clamps.  Since he retired, he has had a chance to explore some hobbies and has gotten really incredible at refinishing antique furniture. He can see the potential in a beat up old antique and restore it to probably better condition than it ever was.

I guess he got bored with greatness and decided to learn to carve. He's done a lot of really cool stuff, but this latest is awesome! It's his FIRST, let me say it again FIRST piece done in this relief style. I'm honored that he let me paint it for him, it was really fun and turned out soooo good!

Because Christmas Will Be Here Soon

Yeah I know, it's September 1, but some people like to plan ahead for Christmas gifts. Some things can't be done last minute, especially not the really thoughtful gifts. I actually started working on a couple of mine in Italy this summer.

...commercial break...
What? You went to Italy? How was that?
That my friends was the best of times and it was the worst of times....and a LONG story for another day.
...and now back to the show...


Have grandparents and parents that love your sweet adorable kids? Do you love your sweet adorable kids? Why not give the gift of a custom portrait of your sweet adorable kid?
Something like this....