Feeling Beachy Sign

I started a Christmas gift for my BFF who lives along the beautiful Northern California coast.

That gift would have been for Christmas of 2014.

I worked on it in January.  That's January of 2015.

What month and year is it now?  August... 2015.

I've been moving the sign from room to room with no excuse other than I'm too lazy to get it packaged up.

It's currently leaning against the wall in my cedar porch.

Fortunately at her house in California beach never goes out of style.  Here, it is a little strange when there is 3 feet of snow outside.

It's sort of a sad thing when she has to see her gift, almost a year later, on the internet, living 2000 miles away from the spot I made it for in her kitchen.

I'm going to tell you - and her - how I made it because I like it so much I might need to refer back and make one of my own.

I started with a thin piece of luan, nice and light for mailing.  It's a long sign made to fit above her sink, in the area of 4 feet long.

I would tell you exactly how long it is, but of the ten million tape measures that live here, not a one is to be found.

The board was painted first in Coal from Fusion Mineral Paint, because I wanted the letters to be black.

I cut out vinyl to spell B E A C H, and I can tell you nothing sounds better in January in Minnesota than a warm beach.

Then I let the sign mellow for a couple months.  Mellow is code for it stood in the corner till I got back to it.

When next the sign and I met,  I painted a coat of Inglenook over the black - a pretty bluish green that reminded me of the Caribbean water.

I tried out Fusion Sand Stone Texture, I figured that would give it a beachy vibe since it had the word sand in it.

Sand Stone Texture is thicker, like a sheet rock mud, and you can apply it anyway you want, I used that cute little trowel tool you see in the picture above.

This stuff dries rock hard! 

I let it dry for a while on my front porch..... for about 2 months.  It got rained on and nothing softened that rock hard texture.

It does not dry semi transparent like it goes on.  This was the first time I used it and I didn't know that.

By the time I was ready to finally finish it, I had to take out the palm sander to distress it so I could see just a hint of the blue peeking through.

I didn't have enough elbow grease to sand it by hand with a piece of sandpaper.

 The whole sign was waxed with a clear wax, but I might go back and do more distressing and add some touches of dark wax before I mail it. Which might be another year right?

Of course you'll have to wait to see it hanging over her sink till I actually send it to her, and then you and I both might have to wait on the sign getting hung up.  Oh and after it's hung we might have to wait for a photo.

She's on the same time table as me.

Lets call it island time.

So for now the sign is pointing the direction of the closest beach.  Right out my own back door.

It's not the ocean that I love, or the beautiful Caribbean, but on those hot and humid 90 degree days it's wet.

Yup wet..... and always wild around here.

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