On Mondays We Go To The Park

Ok, in all honesty, we generally go to the park every day it isn't raining. Ryan loves the park. Really, he loves any excuse to be outside. On our walk to the park we are ever on the lookout for dandies (dandelions). It is his life goal to collect as many as possible. 

He loves them so he refuses to release them from his chubby little fingers the entire time we are at the park. It makes swinging and riding the plastic seal difficult, but somehow he manages. 

When it is time to go home he makes sure to count his collection. Over and over. "One. Two. Freeee." Then, as we walk back up the hill toward home he waves and says goodbye to everything at the park. "Bye swing. Bye slide. Bye seal. By frog. By park."

Oh, I love him so. 

DIY Distressed Sign

Sometimes I get ridiculous ideas. My sister-in-law is getting married and I thought it would be awesome to get her a "Last Name" sign. My husband and I have one and it is one of my favorite pieces in our house. It's such a sweet reminder of our special wedding day. If you've ever looked into signs like this on etsy, they can be quite expensive. So, being the frugal person I am, I decided to make my own. 

It can't be that hard, right?

I picked up a 1x10 at home depot and had them cut it to 24'' for me right in the store. I gave it a quick sand with a palm sander and some fine-grit paper just to knock down some of the rough edges. This project was meant to be cheap, so I wanted to use whatever I had laying around. 

I had some leftover white spray paint from a previous project and decided this would do the trick. I love this paint because it dries really quickly (an essential for me as my patience isn't that great). 

I threw a sheet out on the front lawn and propped the board up on a can of paint. Ultimately it took 4 coats to cover the front and sides of the board. I didn't paint the back of the board because I didn't want to wait for the drying time in order to flip it. My impatience paid off for me in this step because I ran out of spray paint just as I finished my fourth coat. (I later painted the back with some leftover tan wall paint...use what you've got, right?)

Matching painting sheet and rain boots optional.

As this was meant to be a cheap project, I had bought the cheapest board I could find at home depot. That meant the board was full of knots and splinters. I decided this added "character" and that it was best to embrace it. 

I used some stain from a leftover project to add some distressing to the board.

I used a foam brush and old cotton rag to apply the stain (always following the grain of the wood). 

Once the entire board was covered with stain I decided I hated it. It looked like someone rubbed mud all over my nice white board. Crap.

I grabbed some sand paper and began gently sanding away the stain (of course always following the grain of the wood). 

Once most of the stain was sanded away from the board, I was much happier with the result.

Now it was time for the details. I followed a suggestion I saw on Pinterest to create a template for my lettering. I used the word processing program on my computer to create the font that I wanted for my sign. I saved the font as a jpg and reopened the jpg image in my word processor. By saving the font as a jpg I was able to easily resize the font to the correct height and width for my sign. I then printed the text on multiple sheets and taped it together.

Once I was happy with the size and placement of the font, I turned it over and colored over the back-side of the paper with pencil. 

This picture shows me using chalk, I tried chalk first but it didn't work for me. I had much better results using a regular mechanical pencil. 

Once the back of my paper was covered with pencil lead I turned it over and placed it onto the correct position on the board. Once on the board, I used a ball-point pen to gently trace over the outline of each letter. The pressure from tracing over the letters causes the pencil on the back of the paper to transfer an image onto the board. I was able to use this image as a guide for painting the letters.

I used a small craft brush and black craft paint for the majority of the lettering. I used some leftover grey wall paint for the letter of their first names. It took three coats to get nice coverage. This was the most difficult portion of the project. Even though I had a pencil outline to follow for the lettering it took a great deal of time and patience (and a steady hand) to complete the lettering. 

You could put a coat of poly over the top to protect the finish, but the only poly I had was high-gloss and that really wasn't the look I was going for so I left it as is. Overall, I was really happy with the finished product (and I think my sister-in-law was too).