Wood Plaque

  Here's something I made for my Dad's birthday last year:

  I found this unfinished wood piece at Walmart and wanted to make something with it for my Dad's office.

  First, I stained the wood by watering down some acrylic paint and brushing it all over, then wiping off as much as I could. I intentionally left the stain slightly uneven for a weathered look. The edges really soaked it up, so I only did one coat on those and double-coated the rest of the plaque.

  I tested out some paints with my pointed pen on a little matching wooden tag, but everything was either too thick to write with, or once I'd thinned it, bled everywhere. So I ended up using a calligraphy ink, even though it wasn't waterproof. I still couldn't make regular down-strokes, because of bleeding, so I just did gentle parallel down-strokes to make them thick enough.

   After sketching my design on plain paper with pencil, I transferred it to the plaque the same way I did for this canvas, then went over it with the ink. I used the pointed pen for all of the script, and a combination of pointed pen and a small brush for the larger letters.

  Once everything was dry, I very, very carefully brushed on a layer of clear acrylic sealer, and once that was dry, a second layer.

    It's pretty imperfect up close, but I love the overall look. My only regret is not sanding the wood piece down before beginning to work on it!

  I had fun wrapping this one too! I have a compass seal, which I thought went nicely with the verse on the plaque, so I used that along with some black cardstock and thread, brown ribbon, copper wax, and gold ink, to get this:

  As you can see from the tag, this one was late. In fact, all but one of the gifts made after May last year were late. I don't think anyone but me minded though!

Thanks for stopping by,