Showing posts with label Sign. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sign. Show all posts

July 29, 2015

Renovar Design: DIY Faux Vintage Arrow Sign

Hello and Welcome to August! I am so happy to be visiting again! This month I am sharing with you how to make a vintage inspired arrow sign. I hope you like it!

renovar design faux vintage open arrow light sign

June 10, 2015

Vintage Weatherwood Wedding Sign


 Did you know that Utah is the hub for DIY bloggers? No joke, something like 35% of US DIY bloggers are in Utah! Girls be getting crafty in this state! Missy is a fantastic blogger and furniture rehabber who also lives here in UT. She has done several darling makeovers like this patina green desk and this dovetail gray dresser.

September 9, 2013

Create Textured [French] Canvas Art


Thought I would share a little French conversation I had with a Frenchman today. 
  • Me: "Bonjour, mon nom est Bec, et votre nom est?" This reads, Hello, my name is Bec, and your name is? 
  • French Guy:  "Mon nom est Français Frank, et vous êtes un Américain stupide!"
  • Me: "I love your french accent, it just sounds so..."
  • Husband: "I only took a year of French, but I think he just called us stupid Americans.
  • Me: "Ahhh..."

October 25, 2011

✥ Reader Feature: Pallet Love Sign ✥

I am super excited to introduce you guys to Hannah and her AWESOME "love sign" today! 
She's the first feature project I've invited to guest host here and I know you'll love her and this beautiful rustic sign.

✧✧✧✧✧

Hello From Gardners to Bergers readers! I'm so glad that Becca invited me to share my "love" art! My name is Hannah and I blog over at Young and Crafty. I'd love for you to hop over and check my blog out sometime :)
I'm sure you've all seen this headboard made by House Tweaking.
It's been on my mind ever since I first saw it. When someone asked me to make them some wall are for their master bedroom I immediately thought of this!
She wanted the shabby chic look and here is what I came up with:
I used old pallets for my wood. I wanted the worn wood look.
Wood pallets are hard as heck-o-la to take apart!
They build them like they have to hold heavy materials or something...
I ended up cutting off both sides and then pulling the nails out of the middle part.
By this point I was dripping sweat. It was hotter than hades outside.
I don't even sweat like that when I work out!
I flipped all the boards over to the side I didn't want to use and then pieced two pieces together to hold the shorter boards together.
I used a combo of wood glue and about a million nails. I really don't think the wood glue did anything though.
Here's the front side. So rustic! I hated to paint them but had to so that they were more shabby chic-ish.
I gave the boards two coats of white and then wrote out the word love in pencil. Then just paint over your tracing until you get the thickness you want.
Then distress like crazy. I sanded over everything so that it wouldn't look like I had just painted the letters.
This was after all the sanding. I then glazed it with my favorite glaze (used here, here, & here)
And here is the final product which I "love"! This one is going to be hard to part with!
As you can see I had a few variations to the original. Obviously the white paint is different and I also had to turn the boards vertical rather than horizontal in order to get the size I wanted.
I sure hope she likes it!!
http://www.homestoriesatoz.com/
✧✧✧✧✧ 
This makes me want to rip some pallets apart, ASAP! So many possibilities with that worn wood.

P.S.
I'm planning a weekly reader feature for you all!
I am so super excited to share some of you guys' projects and add to the inspiration found in the blog!  Things are a little crazy for me right now and I want you guys to still have awesome projects to look at and  to share, especially while my own projects are slowed down a bit!
I hope you guys like this idea, cause I think it rocks!!






September 4, 2011

DIY French Grain Sack & Framed Bulletin Board

Here's the after photo, a huge pin up board resembling a framed french grain sack. 
Wanna see how I got there?

This project started as the need to cover an eye sore.
The way our condo is set up we have a constant view of the side of our fridge. Not awesome. 
Awhile back I decided to make a custom message center or bulletin board to hide camouflage the appliance and provide some extra function in the small space. 

After deciding what I was going to do in the space, I waited goodness knows how much longer to find a frame in the right price range (it was actually free) that was big enough to fit an entire pin up board inside of it,

I needed an opening measuring 2 x 3 feet.

How do you like this gorgeous before?
{no wonder it was free, huh?)


Sorry for the sloppy pic, I had so many items to photograph that day, I just piled them on top of each other and took one after another. The bulletin board was also snagged for free the same day, one side had chipped cork, but the other was in great shape.



The next steps consisted of the usual:

sand the frame, prime it with 4 coats of Kilz to cover the red wood hiding under the gold paint, paint it with three coats of Krylon's gloss white and then spray a layer or two of gloss sealer
 For the fun stuff, the design of the board I turned to Google images and Pinterest for inspiration. 
I had pretty much decided to do a post mark/ french script theme, but the project never seemed to get started. My fridge is located very close to the new gallery wall, so I felt a huge framed piece needed to be just right; as to not compete with all the other frames but to compliment what was already done instead.
Finally, I went back to the drawing board for the design.

After looking through some of my Pinterest favorites I decided a French Grain Sack look would work better for my space. This I knew exactly how I wanted it to look.
I started by attaching fabric to the bulletin board.
For a fabric, I used regular old burlap. It is supposed to look like a grain sack after all. To adhere the fabric to the board I used some spray adhesive I already had. It worked like a charm.

I wanted a pop of color on the "grain sack" to keep things from getting too boring in the kitchen.
I mixed a few colors (turquoise, sea green, white and black) until I liked what I saw, then watered it down- a lot.

I used painters' tape to create stripes on the burlap and dry brushed the watered down paints on, while also working in some brighter shades here and there.
I think watering down the paint helped it to appear older, more weathered and kept it from looking thick or freshly painted.
I was a little worried the paint would seep down onto the cork board, but it didn't at all.
I'm sure it I wasn't dry brushing it on than it would have.
I also didn't have any bleeding under the tape- which obviously rocks!
Feel free to grab this and use it, it you'd like.


It took about ten minutes to dry, then we were ready to transfer our images.


I  created an image using graphics form the Graphic Fairy. Then used freezer paper to transfer it onto my burlap. The 2 tutorials I read were pretty brief so I learned a lot through trial and error {a lot of the later.}
 

I'll post the full freezer paper transfer tutorial tomorrow, that way you guys can get all the details and learn from my mistakes experiences. My total graphic ended up being 26 inches high and 16 inches wide- and took a total of 12 printed pages to transfer.

I was initially hoping to separate the bulletin board from its frame. Then cover only the cork with fabric and paint the bulletin board frame the same color as the real frame. I had hoped to make it look like the frame was really thick.

{Does that make sense? A frame inside a frame?}

Unfortunately, my pin up board was an inch shorter than the backer board.  It would have left a gap on one side of the frame and was just enough of a size difference to ruin that plan. You can see it right below.

So instead I wrapped the burlap around the whole board. I used a ruler to make the burlap crisp where the cork met the frame. I don't mind the look of it at all, thankfully.
  
  When the front was secured I used a strong glue to attach the bulletin board to the original backer board/ hard board that came with the frame. It was actually automotive glue- but that's only because I knew it was strong and I already had it on hand.
I let it dry for a few hours.
You don't have to go and buy it, but it worked great for me. I'm pretty sure they'll be stuck together forever.

I used more spray adhesive to attach the burlap around the outside of the bulletin board frame and around the back of the hard board. After it was straightened out, you really cannot even tell the heights were unequal.

Now the boards are glued together, the burlap is affixed to the front and of the bulletin board and wrapped around both of the boards. By affixing the bulletin board to the backer board it's now possible to fit the hardboard into the frame exactly how it was supposed to fit.
The hard board sits on a grooved wood ledge and the bulletin board rises up from inside the frame.
So you can pop the bulletin board into the frame and nail the back into place.
At one point I someone may have jammed the board into the frame before they were fitted properly.
This caused all four corners to split a little. No biggie though, all you need it a little silicone and you'd never know a crack was there. I apply it with my finger, then wipe it smooth with a clean finger. {real technical stuff!}
If you've made it this far, congratulations! Imagine if I'd thrown in the freezer paper tutorial?
I used this "Industrial Strength" Velcro to attach the frame to the side of the fridge. It is so strong I think it could hold me to the side of the fridge! 
The Velcro adhesive takes 24-48 hours to cure. 
So I had this {book holding up frame and blocking garbage can} situation happening overnight. 




Here you can see see how the side of the fridge is visible from everywhere in the living room. I'm pleased with how the grain sack turned out, is looks legit.

If you want an awesome, complete, and in depth tutorial on the freezer paper transfer technique, then check out my post tomorrow.

Thanks for reading!

Looking for places to link up your projects? Check out my Party Page!

I'm also linked up here.

July 16, 2011

Apiary Sign [Mod Podge Tute]


More Bees in this Berger home! This time it's an "Apiary" sign with an image of a bee and a hive.
I got this sign for free, regardless of what that little sticker says. Z and I hit a yard sale right at the end and cleaned house with all our free goodies. I knew pretty quickly what I wanted to do with it. I saw this sign from Miss Mustard Seed. I loved the idea behind it and thought I could personalize it.



Z and I often call each other "B" as a nickname- {Becca Berger}.
I can't imagine how the nickname came about.

So obviously the bee is a perfect dual meaning. I did this bee lamp last week, but thought the house could use one more. 



I made my sign with a Mod Podge transfer technique that works for words and graphics but you will want to follow the tutorial exactly is you want good results. This project is excellent because you can transfer complicated images without leaving behind residue or shine around the pictures.
 
How I made mine:

[1] Sand and paint sign black
[2] Lightly sand and then paint sign white- took about three coats.

[3] Distress wood now,  before the image is transferred. The words will be too vulnerable to withstand sanding. 


[4] Paint one side of a piece of printer paper with Washable Elmer's Glue, getting complete coverage.

[5] The image: I grabbed my pictures offline {again.} I'm not selling these items, so I think it's legit to snag the pics.
 I just made my own  design for the word using Microsoft Word. I would strongly recommend using only black ink for the graphics.  My image had grey ink and it looked lilac! I had to use touch up paint to cover it.
You can change the image to "black and white" in Microsoft Word by clicking 1 button and it will remove shading and grey tones
Make sure to REVERSE THE IMAGE if you're doing words, again this is accomplished by the click of one button. {Google it if you're unsure of how to make these changes.}

[6] Once your paper is dry you can print out the image on the glued side.

[7] In this picture I am determining the spacing I wanted.
With that decided, you'll paint the wood with Mod Podge, try to only put Mod Podge where paper will be over it. It will leave shiny spots otherwise.
If this happens to you my suggestion is to decoupage the entire board so the whole thing is shiny. Do not try to sand the Mod Podge off- this did not turn out well for me!
Put the image face down on the wood. Make sure to rub it in order to get air bubbles out and to get a good adhesion. Leave it overnight, no peaking!
{It is possible that I take cardboard from Ikea every time I g, so that I can use then for projects.}
This is what mine looked like the next day.
[8] Wet the paper, dunk it in water or use a spray bottle, whatever method you like, just wet it down. You want the paper to be completely saturated. You'll know when it is wet enough because the ink will be much more visible through the paper. You can see at the top where the ink is darkening, becoming more visible through the paper.
 
[9] After the paper is soaked and has set for a couple of minutes you can gently peel the paper off. Don't rub or the ink can come off.

[10] I used craft paint to touch up the image a little. {Here's ^ the gallery wall when I was still adding to it!}
That's all I can think of girls! Let me know if you all have any questions. This technique was the bomb. I know other people have had problems with it- they say the ink won't transfer. I have never had problems, so follow the steps carefully!
This is the view into the living room. There are projects to do in every corner of that room. You can see the side of the TV. We are planning a special building project, which I am stoked about! Hopefully we an start that soon.


I pretty much love this project- the sign makes me smile.
Thanks for looking!















Update: Check out these AWESOME sites that graciously featured my sign!

A Marvelous Mess


Looking for places to link up your projects? Check out my Party page.
I'm also linked up here.