Signs, Signs, Everywhere a Sign

It's Texas, it's hot and humid, and consequently stain and varnish take 60 years to dry. So what's a girl to do when she's waiting and waiting, waiting and waiting for layer upon layer of product to dry on her table? That's right, she makes signs. Latex paint dries pretty quick in the hot sun, so that was working in my favor.

My kid's soccer club was doing a fundraiser that I had absolutely no intention of attending, but I did feel like I should do something. So I whipped out these one afternoon.

"You may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas" -Davy Crockett

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!