Valentines Day Present...

I have had this great idea for a present for Jenn for a while! Of course I found the idea on Pinterest, but I did make it my own, in a round about way! But in the process of doing this, I found that I do have a knack for crafty things and  pretty darn good writing freehand on wood! LOL! So, here goes my idea for a great present for our 2nd Valentines Day together.

Our garage has a surplus of odds and ends, which includes wood of all shapes and sizes, scraps and probably just about everything you would need to make almost any project! However, it is in shambles right now and is in need of a HUGE make-over, that Jenn and I plan on doing in the near future! With that said, I scrounged around and found the perfect piece of wood that I would need to get started on her present. It was a long piece of 1/4" plywood. Since I have no saw or skill saw knowledge or for that matter even have one, I asked my awesome neighbor to help me (he lives right behind us). I put the wood on the back fence and went to his house to get started. He is sort of a perfectionist when it comes to making things, so I knew I was in good hands! He measured out three 20" long pieces and cut them. He, thankfully, had a scrap piece of wood to use to screw those three pieces to so that they made a sign, AND without my knowing, he put a nifty wire hanger on the back for me (he's craft that way!). Once it was spray painted black, I was ready to get to writing. Here is the beginning of the pictures:

Start of the project

Now, I'm not too crafty when it comes to having my own ideas, but when I see something I love, I try to duplicate it, but "make it my own". When I originally started this project, I had everything ready, thought I could do all of it without measuring how big/small the lettering should be and just went to town! WRONG!!! I got about 5 hours into the project and had to put the paint brush down and call it a night. Thankfully the next day was a rainy day and my neighbor (the one that is crafty and knows how to spray paint) was home. So, in a panic, I called him and asked if he would help me, YET AGAIN, spray paint over what I had painted so that I could start again! As he laughed, he was willing and very sweet to say yes! This time, since it was raining, it took a lot longer to dry than the original painting did (needless to say I was stressing since it was the day BEFORE Valentines) but in about 2-3 hours he called me and let me know it was ready to pick up and (to my surprise) he had sort of done a "mock" drawing of how I needed to space my lettering out! HA! (I think that was so he didn't have to repaint it again for me! :-) ) Now that I had it back, I put it in the bathroom downstairs, so that Jenn couldn't see it, with a fan to let it continue to dry. 2 hours later, I was ready to paint the words, this time I wrote them very lightly with a pencil, so I could get my spacing and everything correct because there was NO time for a re redo!

I decided this time I would start from the bottom and work my way up so that I had the correct spacing and everything would fit. Here is how it looked a little more than half way done:

I was doing great so far! I was surprisingly happy with myself when I look back on it, because I did all this free handed! As you can see, (at least to me) the words look almost like they are stenciled on! But enough boasting...After this I took to the bathroom to finish, so that Jenn could fix dinner :-)! After about 2 more hours of painting and going back over what I had done so that it would look almost rustic, I was FINALLY finished! I left it in the bathroom with a fan on it over night so that it would be VERY WELL dried for Valentines Day. Here is the finished product (keep in mind, I'm not crafty but I did a pretty darn good job):

Jenn's 2012 Valentines Day Present

Not bad huh?!?!?!? I am pretty proud of myself and the way it turned out and happily, so was Jenn. She will never admit it, but I think I caught a tear when she saw it for the first time! :-) of course it was a tear of happiness. She told me after seeing this, that she has never had anyone go to so much trouble to give her a present before and I assured her that I too had never gone through so much to give a present like this, that means so much to the both of us!

So for now we are on a mission to find out where the best place to hang this will be and I will post that as soon as we decide! For now, I am off to do some more projects so that I can hopefully, make our house a home to us!

I hope everyone had a very Happy Valentines Day! I know I did!

Happy Valentines Day...