It's a challenge! ~

WARNING: Picture heavy post ahead.  

Hey there and happy Sunday my lovelies!

I have to say, this project {challenge} was SO much fun!!

I was browsing through Pinterest and saw this gorgeous sign that one of my favorite bloggers {Anne from Dream Designs by Anne} had pinned:

via

I commented on her pin about how much I loved this sign.  She responded that she did as well.  I said "Girl, let's make one!", she accepted the challenge!  

We had both just finished our first project with homemade chalk paint with very similar results.  She suggested we try using the white glue trick to see if we could achieve the crackle effect.  Ok, it's ON!!  So, as this as our inspiration we both set to work on our respective chippy signs. 

I was so excited.  I borrowed a jig saw from a coworker {I had never used one before} and got started.  Here are the supplies I used: 

I really have no idea what kind of wood this is.  All I know is it was already cut in the size I thought would work for me.  I took all the necessary safety precautions: 

Apparently all safe people are supposed to have 20/20 vision.  Whatevs. 

I freehanded the curve I wanted the top to have onto a piece of cardboard to use as a template. 

I traced it and cut it out with the jig saw.  Sorry, no pictures of that because that would be unsafe.  :-) 

I used my little electric sander to soften the edges and round the corners off slightly. 

Next step: glue.  You paint on a layer of white glue, let it dry to just tacky {5 mins or so} then you paint on the top layer of paint. 

Mmmmmmmkay. 

See any cracks??  Look really hard... no cracks.  Awesomesauce. 

Ok, so I felt like a Mythbuster.  The myth was busted!  But, I really wanted that crackled finish on my sign. So... I went out and bought some crackle medium.  Yeah, I'm a party pooper.  It was a long week and I didn't want to mess around with the glue anymore.  

So, then I looked at our inspiration picture again and realized I hadn't laid a base color.  DOH!!  I started over by painting the darker base coat: 

Once that dried I painted on a layer of the crackle medium.  Then, once THAT dried, I painted my top coat of paint... and held my breath. 

CRACKS!!!

I let this all dry overnight.  The next day, I used a projector to add the logo.  I traced it with a sharpie, then painted it in with black chalkboard paint.  I like how nicely the chalkboard paint looks and distresses.  After that had dried {chalkboard paint dries pretty dang fast} I took my sander to the logo and distressed the whole sign. 

I added 2 eye hooks and hung it up in my kitchen arch with some sisal twine.  That stuff is dang strong, and I glued the knots so they wont come undone.

And here is my masterpiece: 

I did both sides.  :-) 

I was hoping for better picture taking weather.  It was cloudy and extremely windy today.  So, the pics didn't turn out as nice as I had hoped. 

{smitten}

Let's see if Anne had better luck with the glue challenge: 

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I love signs but I'm not very good at making my own!   When Meg from Nutmeg Place and I both liked the same sign on Pinterest, we decided to do a shared blog post on creating our own crackled paint signs.

I googled more home made stuff and found out that you can use Elmer's white glue as a crackle medium.  Well, I have Elmer's glue on hand and I'm always up for trying home made stuff so I glopped it onto a board I had handy and used a foam brush to swirl it around.  I waited 5 hours and painted over the top, careful to follow the instruction of using one thick coat and not brushing the paint more than once or twice.  Apparently the more you brush, the less the glue will crackle the finish.  That part went really well and I got a crackled look.  Then I completely screwed up my words on the sign and had to start over, duly forgetting the part about not overbrushing.  It didn't crackle... I sanded off the top coat of paint and tried re-lettering but things were going from bad to worse.  My sign looked old all right, in fact it looked ancient!  but NOT ATTRACTIVE.

Back to the drawing board.  By now I had found a really cool font that I wanted to use, so I went in a completely different direction using the flip side of my board.  I painted the board yellow first and 5 hours later slopped on more glue with a paper towel.  I only gave the glue an hour to set up before painting another deeper shade of yellow on top.  This time I paid attention to the "don't over stroke" rule.  It crackled perfectly!!

I traced my words onto the sign using newsprint as a carbon paper.  That worked really well and then I over traced the words with a sharpie and coloured them in.  When I was done, I painted a couple of bouquets of flowers and a sun over the center point of the board.  I LOVE IT!!!

Here are the two versions of my signs:

The first is my favourite and I can't wait to hang it on my new studio.  The flip side is the Farmer's Market sign that I killed with paint and overembellishments... There's that OCD thing again!!!

Have a happy & creative week!

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So, apparently it's just me!  Do you just LOVE Anne's sign??

We had such a blast doing this project/challenge.  We are planning on more in the future!

XOXO

Linking to:

Funky Junk
Inspired by Felicity 
Thrifty Decor Chic
Debbie Does Creations
House Of Hepworths
No Minimalist Here