Well, we have made it to a new year.....hello, 2017! Isn't it crazy how fast time flies by? Now that the holidays have passed, I can share a gift project that I completed for my sissie. My family has a fun tradition for gifting over the holidays:
At thanksgiving, you declare if you plan to attend the Christmas festivities. If yes, your name goes in a hat and we all draw one after dinner. That is your person, you get no gift ideas or help, you have to keep it a secret and can spend no more than $50.
Upon drawing Sister B's name, I spent a week or so brainstorming what I was going to purchase (or perhaps make). I walked through a few cute shops for inspiration and then suddenly had a vision for a DIY wall art project....I was seeing some barn wood pieced together in some way, the names of her family members hand painted in a fancy layout and hooks on the back so she could hang it somewhere in her house.
The biggest challenge to accomplishing this task was finding the wood. I emailed a friend who is a frequent barn wood art creator (you can find some of her other cute projects here: (http://www.housingaforest.com) and figured she would most definitely have ideas on this. She did not disappoint and sent me a link to this place:
Guys, it's awesome! A warehouse full of all kinds of barn wood pieces- big/small, thick/thin, long/short, painted/bare. And if you are willing to take the time to hunt around, the perfect wood can be found for any project! They even have a clearance room (where I found the pieces I needed and only spent $8!!):
I found these 3 pieces of wood already the same size (almost)! A quick stop at Menards for the extra wood to secure them together on the back and this girl would be in business:
I chose a basic board for this part- and Menards will cut any wood to the size you need. Score! This is helpful, because I don't have such tools for wood cutting at home. I did have some frustrating moments drilling the screws into place (it would have been helpful to predrill some holes but I didn't have a bit for the power drill to do that)- so I had moments of screaming/yelling at screws that didn't want to go in their spots but muscled thru and won the battle in the end. Lesson learned.
I took some deep breaths and regained my crafting composure before moving into phase 2. Before adding any actual paint to the wood surface, I lightly sanded and then wiped the surface off with a damp towel. While it was drying, I sketched out a few possible layouts for all the names on some scratch paper:
Next, moved to a piece of tagboard equal in size to the actual piece of wood to do one more sketch and make sure that all the names would have enough room:
Looked good, so it was time for the paints. I chose colors that would compliment the decor of her walls and furniture:
I lightly drew out the words with pencil on the wood and then just went for it! It worked best to use a smaller brush with an angled edge and to brush on a faint, rough line to start each letter. Then I carefully dabbed along the line with the edge to make a clean line. This process took awhile, but was definately worth taking my time and keeping a steady hand!
Phew...2 names down, 3 to go!
Hooray! All the names spelled right and no major painting flubs to fix along the way. I call that a victory:)
Last thing to do was to add a clear coat to protect the paint from chipping off over time. I used this (in a well ventilated area for safety...it's kind of stinky):
The gift was a success (along with a few other trinkets to add to the holiday fun)! I'm pretty sure she almost shed a tear of joy....makes you feel good to make others feel good:)
And to top it off, it was a very satisfying project to complete! From the initial idea, to the wood search, the planning and finally the painting....i like when a vision comes to fruition just as you had hoped it would!
No comments:
Post a Comment