Garden Directional Sign DIY

After a few years of contemplating (procrastinating) we finally made our garden directional sign.

Using leftover pine or spruce from something or other (probably fence boards) we set to work. Pallet wood would work as well. (Try saying that 5 times fast!)

I googled the mileage from home to some of the different places we have been to over the years. Then I printed out the info in large font. Using carbon paper and a stylus I traced everything onto the wood. If you don't have carbon paper you can blacken one side of any paper with a lead pencil, then use an old ballpoint pen as a stylus for tracing. A little time consuming but it works.

Once the transfers were done my husband cut the boards and tapered the ends. 

I watered down different coloured acrylic craft paints and gave each sign a wash, making sure the lettering showed through the wash.

Once they were dry I painted little things that were memories of those places (like bears in Algonquin Park) and finally painted the lettering in black.

Hubby gave them all a coating of this outdoor varathane to hopefully protect them from the elements.

 

Then he used his pneumatic nailer to attach all the signs to an existing post we have in the garden. Good thing he did it because I would have just nailed them on and would probably have split the wood.

So there you have it, our garden directional sign... yes people have pointed out that the arrows are not all pointing in accurate directions. That doesn't matter to me. I just love it!