Monday, August 20, 2012

DIY Pallet Signs!

 Courtney's cute mom saw a darling wood plank sign of a pink elephant a bit ago. She really liked it. But the elephant was pink...it only had TWO legs and it had a hefty price tag.

So, the two of us decided to make her one- exactly the way SHE wanted it and for WAAAAY less money.

It began this way:  Home Depo wood planks for $.97/ piece. Cut to size- we'll be able to use the scraps for another project- we really actually didn't spend that much on this board. We cut them (more specifically Mr. Fabulous did).

We assembled them will additional planks and some nails.


 We ended up with this LOVELY 4'x3' bunch of planks, ie, blank CANVAS.....


We started painting. We started with ivory spray paint. Just a heads up. The paint SOAKED into the wood doing almost nothing. We tried spray paint primer...yeah right. We went BACK to Home Depot and purchased paint...mixed by the sweetest older gentleman. We bought some rollers and started again.

It worked terrific and it all went pretty fast!


When it was dry (two minutes later) I started sanding the boards for that "antiqued-vintage" look we were going for.


After the sanding, we stood the board up, darkened the garage and then using a projector to project the exact elephant image we wanted up the on the board, started tracing it onto the board.



We brought it inside to my kitchen and started painting the elephant! We had debated over what type of brush to use. We bought all different kinds and ended up staying with what we knew best- foam brushes! It was the right choice. It gave us the control we needed to keep lines straight but also the ability to show some of the wood's 'character'. 


We did touch up with a smaller brush, though. Note the eye in this picture compared to the finished elephant eye. It was nice to have that option.


After the paint dried, we sanded again. We wanted it a little distressed- but not a whole lot.


Here's the finished product! On it's way to Countney's mom!



It's TULLE this week on MindyMaes Blog! Head over there for some cute ideas!

3 comments:

  1. How do you get these incredible projects done w/ "real jobs"? I love it -adorable. Courtney's mom was probably thrilled! You gals should think about selling some of your craft projects.

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