plywood crafting.

When Jeff and I were on our annual autumn holiday - this year visiting Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks (luckily just days before the bleeping shutdown) - I made him stop at a kitchy corner gift shop in Jackson cos I noticed a really really awesome sign hanging in the window. Jeff didn't bother himself with actually accompanying me inside (I think sometimes it's cool to be a kitchy tourist!) so I went in alone to check it out. It was made out of plywood and plastered with an infamous Muir quote ~

'The mountains are calling and I must go'

There was another - even bigger - sign that said even more simply ~

'Go climb a mountain'

I had to have them. Trouble was - they'd be hard to fit in my carryon luggage. And they were kind of stupid-tourist expensive. So I told myself - 'I can make that!'

Time then to put that theory to the test... It started with buying some cheap CDX plywood and designing a file to size.

Then printing out a set of the letters - as many as could fit on each letter-sized piece of stick-on label paper I had. That was the easy part. Then came the painstaking cutting out part. Of every letter. Which actually wasn't too bad - especially with help!

Then sticking them on - using guides in the design layout and a T-square on the plywood to measure the leading and kerning.

Until it was finished...

Wait... obviously I had painted the plywood white before I began. So then it was time to paint over the letters.

And... the real painstaking part. No... the really painstaking part. Peeling them off. Every. Single. Letter. Oh and the teeny-tiny hyphen. Stupid hyphen.

My fail was that I used regular old Avery label paper (8-1/2x11" sheets granted) cos I had some lying around - but which do not take to being painted over very kindly. And so it was nearly impossible to get them off. Before I make more of these kinds of plywood signs I need to invest in some proper vinyl sticker sheets. But regardless - a couple hours later it was actually finished -

And looks pretty cool I must admit. I have to saw off an inch from the bottom (for some reason I cut it at 16-1/2" instead of 15-1/2" cos clearly I have yet to learn the ol' adage 'measure twice cut once' rule from grade school carpentry... ).

But once I master that - up next...

: )