Gate Sign

I made another sign this weekend the night before my booth. I didn't take very good pictures during the process, but here she is all done at my booth:) Isn't she pretty?  Its out of an old gate/cupboard(?) door.

I got an order this week for a custom sign and will be starting it this weekend. Its for my adorable friends daughters room....and you are all going to want one. I know I am.

Amy from the Vintage Farmhouse bought this for her daughter for her wedding! Can wait to see it gracing their home.

Subway sign art (a tutorial)

Im so excited about this project! I have done one previous pallet project here and am now hooked. I have wanted to make a subway inspired sign for awhile now, and finally had all I needed to make one. My friend gave me a cricut (score!) and my dad found me the perfect pallet! Now I know subway signs have street names, or locations on them but I wanted to make some with sayings on them. I have a few ideas, but this first is for my kitchen.

 Here's the how to:

Start with a pallet or piece of plywood: 

I sanded this one down with a 100 grit just to get the big sliver chunks off. I was going for a distressed look so didn't make it perfect on purpose.

Next I painted the whole thing white with a small roller. I decided to use the actual letter for the stencil and not the stencil part. My letters were huge (up to 6 in.) so I thought that would be easier and save some vinyl rather than use the negative of the letters. So, in this case, I painted the base the color the color that I eventually wanted the letters to be. 

 Next I cut out all the letters with paper first so I didn't waste vinyl. I only did six words, so wanted it to fill up the space and knew I would have to adjust my letter size depending on the length of the word.This part was pretty time consuming. Almost 3 hours!

Then its time to cut out the vinyl letters (on my awesome cricut machine!) and attach them to the board. I measured half way down and did the middle line of letters first, drawing a straight line on each row to keep them even. You can use contact paper which helps keep your letters straight, but I didn't have enough to do this whole thing, so I placed them by hand, which was also time consuming. (This took 10 feet of 8 in. vinyl, so I didn't want to use that much contact paper) Here are all the letters layed out.(the vinyl I used is gray and sticky on the back)

I smoothed them all down so no paint would seep under and then mixed up my own shade of gray since I didn't have any on hand. Now its time to paint. I started with a foam brush only painting outwards away from the stencils.

And then quickly decided that this would leave weird brush strokes and take forever. I realized that I spent so much time making the letters perfect that I should be able to paint right over them and be fine, so I grabbed a regular paint brush and painted on two coats right over all the letters.

Now taking them off is a little tricky. You don't want the paint to be dry because then the vinyl could take chunks of paint with it. But if its too wet, its hard to get a start on the letter to peel it off. So I got some tweezers and carefully peeled them off.

And here it is in the kitchen.(on the half painted cart I'm working on.......that coming soon)

I decided I wanted it to look even more distressed. I took a fine grit(220) paper and quickly went over the whole sign to roughen it up a little. I can see myself becoming a sign making fool. More to come soon I'm sure.......

I want to do some black ones with distressed white letters. Here's kind of what it would look like. I cant decide which I like best, so I guess I'll just have to make another one:)

Partying at:
My uncommon slice of suburbia
The Ivy Cottage
Primp
Miss Mustard Seed
Somewhat Simple
My Repurposed Life
Redoux

Pallet coat rack (18)

Here's a quick how to of the pallet Trish and I made in Long Beach a few months back. 'Quick' because that's how easy it is. And I was a horrible picture taker during the process. Her hubby Eugene did the hardest part for us. Here it is before, just a plain old pallet:

He cut off the back half of it for us so it wouldn't be so heavy. Trish wanted it to match the accent wall she did in her living room behind the tv here:

It turns out she only had about an inch of paint left in the half gallon can, but it turned out to be a good thing  and we ended up with a nice distressed look that we were really happy with. I just lightly washed off the pallet and sanded it really quickly just to get rid of the huge sliver parts. Then I took a dry paint brush and put a tiny bit on the brush. I dry brushed the entire thing really roughly just barely covering it. I didn't get a picture if it hung up over her beautiful black cabinet, but here it is after:

    Then you just add knobs, handles or hooks and hang as you wish. Easy peasy and oh so cute.

Linking to:

DIY by Design

Southern Lovely

Redoux
Primp
Miss Mustard Seed

and

Somewhat Simple

Pallet Love

I love pallets. Now how many of us could say that before pinterest? I mean really, am I right or am I right? I also love the awesomeness that is living-in-the-sort-of-redneck-woodsyness that I do:) Now Ive always loved it, but after not having it for 8 months, I reeeally love it now. We have pallets everywhere!! My dad always has them to store stuff on, my neighbor who is MIA has them everywhere and lets not forget that I love by the dump which is pallet heaven! Any of you who are not into pinterest may not know what the heck I'm talking about. Let me give you a little peek into my obsession. I'm warning you though, its dangerous to look at this. You will never look at a pallet or pile of scrap wood the same. Don;t say I didn't warn you. Here's some loveliness.....First here's one that my friend Trish and I made to hang right inside her front door for coats and bags. (Here's the how to.)

And here are some Ive pinned:

Awesome right??? As soon as it stops raining around here I'm going to try my hand at a subway sign. I had a pallet all dried out...and then it rained, And then I dried it out again.......and then it rained again:) So, here's hoping for tomorrow! I'm also hoping to do some shelves and an ottoman in the near future.
Its funny that I see and hear quotes all the time that I love, but now that I need one I just cant pick one. Its this huge statement piece that everyone coming into our home will read. Its kind of a big decision. So now I'm on the hunt. I'm thinking I may take the easy way out and use a food quote I love and put it in the kitchen. That was I can take a little more time finding a meaningful one that I can live with. What kind of wording to you display in your home?