WattMagazine[2015] Issue #2

• D.I.Y's II

Hello everyone Rosie1088 here, this is my first DIY and I hope you enjoy it as much as I will.

Which Way Shall We Go? DIY Literary Garden Sign Tutorial

The first step was to acquire a pallet (aka free wood).

I have been a little leery about the pallet-mania going on,

as the life of a pallet can include being sprayed with pesticides and other nasties.

But since this one was destined for the outdoors, I headed to our local dump.

Next, I gathered my tools and materials for the project:

* Pallet

* Table Saw & extension cord

* Sander and/ or sand paper

* Hammer, Crowbar

* Pencils

* Nails in desired size

* Print outs of locations in desired size and font

* Craft paints, palette, brushes

* Outdoor Sealant (I used a water based clear coat)

* lumber for signpost

For the sake of saving labour, I decided to simply chop off the outer sides of the pallet

(less nails to pry out).

If you prefer a more nuanced approach, there are lots of YouTube videos detailing how to take apart a wooden pallet.

Once I chopped off the outer ends from the pallet, all I had to do was take it apart.

The easiest way was to simply use the hammer and bang the face boards off of the middle crossbeam a little.. bang them away from where they attach, creating a little extra space around the nail head, which could then be pulled easily with the claw of the hammer. Does that make sense?

(If not, see YouTube for better, smarter, safer ways to do it!).

At this point I had over a dozen boards approx. 24" in length.

You can save your nails from the pallet to put together your signs later.

The next step was to use the table saw and cut the ends of each board into rough arrow shapes.

The more random the better!

(When you sand and/or paint, you will flip some to go in the opposite direction).

You could skip this next step, but in my experience painting will go much more smoothly, literally, if your wooden surface is smooth, allowing the paint to adhere better and last much longer.

Using a small hand sander and some 80 grit paper to really quickly slough off any unevenness, I sanded one side of each board (remembering to flip some so they can point in the opposite direction).

Of course, you can do this by hand, too.

And now you are ready to start creating your signs!

The first thing you need to do is check out a tutorial which will help you distress your wood (if you so choose.. I didn't for this project) AND most importantly hook you up with a great lettering tutorial so you can transfer the perfect fonts for each literary place right onto the wood!

You can also use carbon paper for the lettering~ but I am impatient and we live in the woods and a long way from any place with carbon paper!

Make a list of all the magical places you want to put on your signpost.

You can use a free font website (like dafont.com) to help you find the perfect lettering.

HINT: On Dafont you can choose a font to look at, and then enter your place name as the 'sample text' and until you change it, all fonts you view will show you your chosen words in that font.

Fonts are often named thematically, so try entering in something like "Hobbit" for a couple of great options for 'The Shire". Most free fonts are only free for personal use, so please respect the designers and do not sell items using their work without making a donation or purchase.

Download and install your desired font.

Print out the words at the desired size (this may take a few test prints to get it right for your boards).

Use the lettering tutorial linked above to get your words onto your boards for painting.

(or use your carbon, or go freehand.. I just happen to be a bit of a nut for just the right font!)

Paint your letters, and add details as you feel inspired!

This part of the project will take the longest ~ we had trouble choosing just a few places and I bet you will, too!

Once your signs are all painted and dried, use your chosen sealer to weatherproof them.

I used a water based acrylic clear coat and applied 3 coats.

With a lot of debating, we determined the order for our signs.

For a signpost, I purchased a piece of unfinished pine trim from the dowel section at the hardware store, scrap wood would work fine, too!

Next nail them down!

If your nails are too long, simply hammer the backs down against the board.

Two nails were required every couple of boards in order to keep them all from turning and spinning on a single nail.

Being a bit of a tree hugger, I was a little hesitant to nail the finished sign post to a tree.

But I did some reading and was assured that 2-3 nails in a healthy mature tree would not cause undue stress or damage to the tree. So we proceeded to choose a tree and mount our signpost with a couple of 3" nails.

The last and final step, take a step back and look at you fantastic piece of work!

If you liked this DIY come back next week, for more geeky DIYs.

Rosie1088