via Huckberry When we found out we were purchasing a home with an outdoor wood furnace to heat our house, Kevin was excited to say the least. He could finally justify buying a chainsaw and even bought us matching "chop wood" t-shirts (see left). Yes, I wear the t-shirt… no, usually not while chopping wood.
Henry Ford did not tell a lie (about the wood thing at least, I didn't know the man). Hauling, chopping, splitting and stacking wood is hard and you will sweat.
Truth be told, I am no good at it. I desperately want to be but my little arms just aren't strong enough to split :( Sadly, Kevin does most of that work solo. Nevertheless, this saying became our mantra for this new house.
Henry Ford did not tell a lie (about the wood thing at least, I didn't know the man). Hauling, chopping, splitting and stacking wood is hard and you will sweat.
Truth be told, I am no good at it. I desperately want to be but my little arms just aren't strong enough to split :( Sadly, Kevin does most of that work solo. Nevertheless, this saying became our mantra for this new house.
Kevin had mentioned wanting a poster with the saying on it. I looked around on Etsy and the internet and tried to get away with the "easy route". I didn't want an exact print replica of the shirts, so I opted to craft it.
I am really into the chalkboard style lettering, and wanted to incorporate that into the project. There is also a lot of wood here, so I used small rounds we had laying around as well. This was the finished result [scroll below the image for the tutorial]:
I am really into the chalkboard style lettering, and wanted to incorporate that into the project. There is also a lot of wood here, so I used small rounds we had laying around as well. This was the finished result [scroll below the image for the tutorial]:
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The first step was to cut and collect varying sizes of wood pieces. I had been sawing slices for a couple days… I had wanted to make a fireplace cover that looked really similar to the picture above. I decided to "borrow" them for this project and haven't had time yet to start the other :) That is life. Knowing the wood slices were varying heights, I opted for a 2" shadowbox that I picked up at Michael's on super sale with a coupon. This whole project cost me under $15 to make.
Like I said above, I really didn't like any of the posters I saw online. Sketching, I created the composition and then took it into Photoshop to see if I could replicate it. I knew it would be easier to move it around on the screen (and to get the fonts right) if I did it on the computer. Long story short, the bottom half was perfect, but I still had to do the "chop your own wood" portion by hand. Before printing, I flipped the design so it was a mirror image. To flip the handwritten top portion, I traced the front text, to the backside of the paper. That is a concept that is VERY hard to put into words, I hope you can follow.
I taped the design to the outside pane of glass, so I could have the paint on the inside of the frame. I was worried that the paint might get scratched up during hanging, or inevitably during another move. Using my smallest brush, I painted the white glass paint over the letters the best I could. I wanted it to look like a white vinyl from far away, and I think it does :)
To secure the wood slices to the frame backing (which was a black velvet material) I used a dab of hot glue. The wood actually stayed in place without it. The roughness of the wood clung onto the material, but I knew I wanted an assurance that it wouldn't crash down after a week of hanging.
The rest is cake, I just assembled the parts and wrapped it up. Kevin loved it and I am super happy with the end result.
[ This can be our little secret: I had no idea this would be a tutorial, so there were iPhone images I kept sending to Nadine while crafting to show her my progress! ]
Like I said above, I really didn't like any of the posters I saw online. Sketching, I created the composition and then took it into Photoshop to see if I could replicate it. I knew it would be easier to move it around on the screen (and to get the fonts right) if I did it on the computer. Long story short, the bottom half was perfect, but I still had to do the "chop your own wood" portion by hand. Before printing, I flipped the design so it was a mirror image. To flip the handwritten top portion, I traced the front text, to the backside of the paper. That is a concept that is VERY hard to put into words, I hope you can follow.
I taped the design to the outside pane of glass, so I could have the paint on the inside of the frame. I was worried that the paint might get scratched up during hanging, or inevitably during another move. Using my smallest brush, I painted the white glass paint over the letters the best I could. I wanted it to look like a white vinyl from far away, and I think it does :)
To secure the wood slices to the frame backing (which was a black velvet material) I used a dab of hot glue. The wood actually stayed in place without it. The roughness of the wood clung onto the material, but I knew I wanted an assurance that it wouldn't crash down after a week of hanging.
The rest is cake, I just assembled the parts and wrapped it up. Kevin loved it and I am super happy with the end result.
[ This can be our little secret: I had no idea this would be a tutorial, so there were iPhone images I kept sending to Nadine while crafting to show her my progress! ]
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