Saturday, February 24, 2007

Signs, signs, everywhere a sign...

Besides winter sowing, I have been busy making up some garden signs for here and there about the property. I have been using pieces of scrap wood found here and there, some from the wood pile. I printed out the alphabet in some of my favorite fonts and then practiced writing those fonts out on another piece of paper until I was adequately proficient at it. After that, using a pencil I mark out lines on the board for spacing and then write out my message. Then I go back and trace the pencil lines using a fine tipped paint brush and exterior enamel. Then again, go back with a black sharpie to outline and then again with the fine tipped paint brush and black paint to go over the sharpie outline. It seems redundant to use the sharpie and then trace over it with black paint, but the sharpie will either fade away in the weather (It would be awesome if they made an exterior use sharpie, wouldn't it?), or if a clear coat applied, will wash it away. If I just use the paint without the sharpie outline, I tend to make my painted outlines out of whack and it doesn't look as nice.

My husband actually got a laugh out of the Garden of Weedin sign. It applies to well here on our large expanse of property. The Private Property sign I decided to make because the plastic store bought signs we put along the state park line fell off with the wind. We put them up just to let hikers know the boundaries of the park. I feel people will be respectful and that I don't need to say No Trespassing.

I still have to make the sign posts too. I like painting the posts brightly and have used finials for post toppers and paint them too. Unfortunately, something has been chewing on one of my favorite signs to the woodland path that I just put out in November. I can't imagine what, a squirrel? A raccoon? A skunk? A deer, groundhog? Whatever it was, it must've been mighty hungry to chew on some painted wood.

6 comments:

Marc said...

I love the signs! I've been thinking of making small signs to identify each flower and vegetable variety to help my children learn better what everything is. Your idea of fun signs is even better!

Garden of Weedin IS pretty funny!

pmo3ws(Kathy) said...

Your signs are so cute! Glad I am visiting your blog!

Angie said...

Thank you Marc, I have a lot of fun making them. Sometime I will post a pic of a few I already have in use.

Angie said...

pmo3ws, Thank you for stopping by, hope to see you on here again!

Petunia's Gardener said...

Fun! I love signposts too. We had guests help us make some on wood shingles left from prior owners. You can see the photos under the label 'garden whimsey' I also have a garden of weedin by one of the guests! Enjoy your signs.

Angie said...

petunia, Thanks for your comments- I really love your sign post. I want one but have not figured where to put one yet. I loved looking at all of your garden whimsey!