This spring I finally got plants to put in my planters on my front porch. Problem is, my dollar store wreath that I made last year when I did my $8.00 front porch makeover doesn't match. I looked around for a wreath idea, but I just wasn't feeling it. As I was rooting around in my craft stash, I found the back to an old poster frame and a light bulb went on.. I've seen tons of twine wrapped letters people put on their front doors, so why can't I cut one out and paint it to match my plants?
I am a genius.
Maybe.
After all, all I gotta do is draw out a letter "A", cut it out, paint it, seal it and hang it up, right?
Too easy. I'll have this done by lunch!
Or not.
Luckily, our last name starts with an A. If it started with a G or an B, I might not have finished this. If my last name started with a T, I or L, I might've finished this *&$! thing a lot sooner. I took a yardstick and started drawing my A. It took a couple tries and researching some fonts, but I finally did it. Then I used tape to mark off my best A, since there were so many lines from previous tries.
Now to cut this bad boy out. I used a Dremel tool first to score my lines, thinking I could then use a cutting wheel to cut it out. The scoring worked fine, the cutting wheel not so much. Even though it's a fairly thin piece of wood, it's still too much for the cutting wheel. I decided to try the jigsaw next, even though I was worried it would chew up the edges. I did a practice cut and decided I could sand the edges.
It cut through everything, but some lines are not smooth and straight and I messed up in a few spots, but I got it cut out and it still looks like an A and I still have all my fingers. Quite proud of myself.
I sanded the edges as smooth as I could, but some lines were still wobbly, especially where I had to cut inside the A. And there was a big chunk along the top right side that I couldn't get with out the jigsaw tearing the letter. So I sucked that up and decided to figure out a way to camouflage it later.
Before I could paint it, I needed to fix the spots where I went a little too far with the jigsaw. I filled the cut marks and chunks with wood filler, let it dry and sanded it.
Finally, onto painting. I planted coleus (coleuses?) in my planters, so I pulled the colors out of that. I used a bright, citron green for the letter and used burgundy and magenta for the designs. Not only does that match my coleus, but I also have bright green and burgundy shrubs. That was a happy accident. Sometimes it just all comes together...
I painted the whole A with the green...
Then I stenciled stripes in the burgundy and magenta...
Then I sealed it with 3 coats (front and back) of clearcoat, glued on a ribbon and hung that bad boy up!
You can see the big chunk in the upper right hand corner of the A, but you can't see it from the street, so I'm just gonna suck it up and live with it.
I do like my A. It's different from all the countless wreaths everywhere and it's colorful. I like colorful! Maybe it wasn't quite as easy as I first envisioned, but I am happy. Plus you can't see the problem areas from the street.
Until the next project,
Chris :)
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