Wooden Sign/Bunting

I thought I’d fit a quick blog in whilst my little man naps.

The sunshine is glorious!  Somehow, sunshine helps to lift spirits and warm the cockles.  It makes everything easier, it makes time go more slowly, it  makes us feel happier.  We are feeling rested lately.

Here’s a picture of my little man enjoying the beach.

I thought I’d fill you in on some of the shed’s pretty-ness.  I made that gorgeous bunting to hang outside.  I went for boy-ish colours so as to not to detract from the manliness. 

This is my favourite flag…the material a present from my mummy…

Here it is hanging in place.

It looks so cheery hanging up there.  And somehow I enjoy going down and hanging it up declaring the shed open for business on the sunny days!

The sign was a bit more of a venture into the un-known.  Working with wood is not something I’ve done before…and painting, I thought, was definitely not my forte.

Firstly I scoured the garage for some wood scraps laying around and sawed off a piece the right size. Then I set about giving it a good old sand to smoothe the roughness.

I don’t think I’m really a power tool sort of girl…so I enlisted my husband for hole drilling.  I think he secretly enjoyed helping me and being all macho with the drill!

After that, a coat of paint.  I had some Seagrass wood paint available…and that very much matched the shed. 

A couple of coats later and I was ready for the writing…or was I? This was the bit where I thought it would go wrong as my artistic prowess, especially when wielding a paint brush is lacking!  I chose the font I wanted, and made sure it was the right size…and off I painted!  In future I would probably invest in some proper paintbrushes, as I was using very amateurish kids paintbrushes (the type you get 50 brushes for a £1 type job) with no defined tip to them.  I used a white paint for the writing.

Here’s how it turned out…

Not too shoddy I think.  The next step was the most frustrating.  I wanted it to be weather-proof so it could stay outdoors…so I bought some varnish.

You can’t imagine it would be that difficult really.  I firstly bought the back tin…Outdoor Varnish, Clear Weather-proof Protection in “Clear Satin”.  Well…on opening it definitely didn’t look clear…more of a browny colour so I put it on a corner to test and it definitely was not clear.  It made it all yellowy and stained.  Disgruntled I bought a second tin (the front one) and told the shop man about my project and repeated the word ‘clear’ about 25 times!  He assured me. Well it definitely was clear when I put it on…so two coats of protection on there.  Then I read on the front it’s for interior wood…so it begs the question as to how weather proof this sign will be!

Painted and varnished…only bit left was stringing, knot tying and ultimately hanging.

It hangs off the same hook as the bunting at the moment…whether we will move it I’m not sure, but it looks okay there for now.

Naturally I’ve been making a few more bits and bobs…but they’re for another time.

I’m going to take my little man to the local Toddler Rhyme Time session now and I’ve got my best singing voice prepared!

Love from me and my little man x