Wednesday, October 9, 2013

{31 Days of Coastal Style} Easy DIY Driftwood Sign Tutorial

I have a confession to make. When it comes to crafts, I am NOT Martha Stewart. Or Ana White. Or even Karianne of Thistlewood Farms! For me to make a craft it must be: a) cheap (as in, preferably free), b) easy (like do-it-with-my-eyes-closed), and c) not involving a tape measure. (Let's just say: measuring tapes and I do not get along...)

So that's why this driftwood sign project was right up my alley. Free? Check. Easy? Check? No measuring involved? Double-check. Seriously, I'm almost embarrassed to call this a "tutorial", because, really, there are only two items necessary: a big piece of driftwood, and a paint pen (oh, yeah, three if you count a pencil)-- and it took less than five minutes from start to finish!


When I found this big, long piece of driftwood (at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore on our Fourth of July family day), I knew immediately what I was going to do with it, and where it was going to go. I knew I was going to make a sign with it (similar to these), and that it was going to go in the beach-themed bathroom of our new apartment (even though we weren't even moved into said apartment yet)! But for some reason, it took me forever to actually get around to making it!

 But on to the tutorial:

1) Steal Borrow your hubby's white paint pen. (Or if your hubby doesn't have one, you can always buy one at your local craft store, or on Amazon here- though that would take this craft out of the "free" category, and into the "costs a couple bucks" category) ;)

 2) Decide what you want your sign to say. 

 I knew I wanted mine to say "BEACH", and a distance. I picked 5 miles because a) that's the approximate distance from our house to the Michigan lakeshore (give or take a mile or two, and b) the number "5" is pretty easy to write nicely. ;) (Oh, and "5" also happens to be the number of people in our family, and the last digit of the year that Mr. Superman and I started courting & got engaged-- so I guess it has some familial significance, too-- now that I think about it!)

 3) Lightly sketch out your words in pencil, to determine where and how big you want your letters to be.


4) Trace over your pencil marks with the paint pen.
Mine were a tad too skinny after one "go-round", so I went back over them a second time to make the lines more thicker/visible.
5) Stand back and enjoy your handiwork! :)



BTW, to hang my sign, I screwed two eye-hooks into the back of the driftwood, and strung picture-hanging wire between them. (Sawtooth hangers would have worked well too, but I was out of those.)


And in it's final resting place, my (soon-to-be-fully-revealed) bathroom:




Seriously, I feel embarrassed that a project this easy took me five months to actually break down and do it! (Hey, there's that number 5 again!) I'm so glad I finally got it done! Now it makes me smile every time I walk into my bathroom :)

Did you miss any of the other 31 Days of Coastal Style posts? Check the list out here!

Do you have a project you've been "putting off" for a long time? What are you waiting for? ;)










P.S. Check out the rest of the "31-Dayers" over at The Nester's blog!

Parties I link to:
Sunday:
Monday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday:
Friday:
Saturday:
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3 comments :

  1. AnonymousOctober 9, 2013 at 5:50 PM

    Awesome!.I have a piece of drift wood from Puerto Rico that I hand painted a palm tree on it,.*& wrote lindens on it..but this is from 1996!!& its still hanging up.in our garage though! Susie...

    ReplyDelete
  2. SharonOctober 9, 2013 at 7:03 PM

    That is SOOO adorable!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownOctober 10, 2013 at 8:55 AM

    Hey, LOVE the posts!! I thought I'd "sail" in and give you a "wave!"

    Love you, too!

    Mom

    ReplyDelete

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