One of my friends that I used to work with is having a baby girl! She just announced the baby's name this past week; she's going to be named Savannah Kendall!
Love the name!
Our little family got invited to the baby shower in a couple of weeks, and we just started browsing the registry. I was thinking of just getting Savannah a couple of nice gifts from Amazon. But, I wanted to make something special for the little one! So, I did some digging on Facebook and asked mom-to-be about a nursery color scheme, and some other "innocent" questions. I've been wanting to do a first and middle name nursery sign SOOO bad! Let's get started!
Most of the signs I've seen on Pinterest are made using 1/2" thick wood, but 3/4" thick is what I had and it's easier to get! Sure, the sign will be a little heavier and the designs will project out a little more, but it'll still look great! Plus, the extra thickness should offer up some extra durability!
So, I started with some 3/4" common board and covered the wood with masking tape to protect it. I sprayed it with adhesive and stuck the paper over the tape. This method is a lot easier than cutting out the designs beforehand and tracing, and the paper and tape peel right off at the end.
I went with the hardest part first, which was cutting out the skinny letters of "KENDALL" using the scroll saw.
That was definitely a challenge! The thin cuts and keeping everything from cracking was something I haven't had to do a lot of, so it took quite a bit of time! But the sense of accomplishment after finishing something this tough is quite a feeling! Now, on to cutting out the first name!
Okay, so I made sure to leave the really "close" and "thin" cuts for last when cutting out "Savannah," because there's less of a chance of the whole piece cracking and/or splitting. The best way to cut the spaces inside of letters is to drill out a hole (just big enough to slide the pin blade through) and cut them out slowly. On to cutting out the circular background!
Cutting a perfect circle out of wood is tough! So, I elected for good enough. As you can tell, there were a lot of deviations and "bumps." But not to worry: THE SANDER will save the day! After sanding the circle down, I removed the tape and paper from the letters and laid out the design, just to get an idea how it's going to turn out!
Not bad! Next step is to sand down the letters! I definitely had to finesse the sanding; the letters in "KENDALL" and all the curves and turns in "Savannah" are quite fragile, and we definitely don't want a crack at this point! But we made it through! Something's missing though...
When the happy couple sent out the invitation on Facebook for the shower, they put that they were "so excited to see all of you and to celebrate our mermaid!" That's it!
Perfect! Now, the little mermaid gets a good and much-needed sanding!
So, I went with a cute-sy mermaid with cartoon-ish proportions rather than a more human-like approach. Since this is going in a nursery, I just thought that would work best! But, It still needs something else...
Mermaids can't venture too far from the water!
It's all coming together! At this point, it's all sanded down and ready for paint and stain. I decided to do the background circle first. I used Minwax Dark Walnut stain; if you have checked out any of my other projects, you know that I like using Dark Walnut on these paint/stain hybrid pieces because of the contrast. I painted the stain on with a paintbrush rather than a cloth, just to make it even darker.
The spruce wood grain really shows through, even though the stain is very dark. Talking with mom-to-be, she told me that the color scheme for the nursery is going to be teal, blue and white. The wood pieces were all prepped and wiped free of sawdust before painting...
So, ordinarily, I would apply the color right over top of the wood. But on this project, I decided to put down a white latex primer coat before the colors. It's best practice anyway, and I think I'll do it from here on out...
This coat of white really covered up some imperfections. And now, I don't have to worry about any wood peeking through.
So, the colors I decided to use were dark blue (waves), light teal (Savannah), and darker teal (mermaid). The KENDALL letters were left white, since that's one of their nursery colors anyway!
So, the painting of the "Savannah" was the toughest for sure. Getting the paint into all the little crevices and tight turns was a challenge! I considered using spray paint, but it's tough to make sure you get in all the tight spots without any drips. I did use higher quality paint on this project than previous projects, and I think it was a good choice!
Now that everything is all painted, it's time to lay it all out and glue it on. I decided on Liquid Nails for this project vs. wood glue. Since the surfaces are painted or stained, I wasn't sure how wood glue would adhere to the surfaces. Using Liquid Nails, I know it will hold.
I glued down the middle name first. Since these letters are all individually cut, I used a thin straight-edge piece of scrap-wood as a guide to make sure they all sit in a straight line.
I didn't use too much glue when adhering the pieces because I wanted to make sure I didn't have much "spill out" when I applied weight to compress the joints. I used a heavy toolbox on top of a cutting mat to compress the adhesive for 12 hours. Spill out still happened. No worries. Once it dried, I used a sharp Exact-o knife and cut the excess glue and gently scraped it off.
Also, during assembly, there were a couple spots that needed some paint touch up.
I allowed the sign to fully dry overnight after the touch-up paint and allowed the adhesive to cure. Now on to poly!
I sprayed the sign with gloss polyurethane on the front and the back to give it a nice pop. I put some heavy-duty picture hangers on the back to make sure this bad boy doesn't fall off the wall wherever the couple decides to hang it up!
This project was incredibly rewarding; I fully enjoyed every minute of it! I enjoyed it almost as much as making something for my little one!
Congratulations Stephen and Stephanie on your little mermaid!
-Kevin
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