Directional Sign

This is one of my favorite projects ever - I made a directional sign for my sister and it turned out super cute. She mentioned wanting one of these but couldn't really figure out how to make one and they are expensive to buy custom made, now that the family is starting to spread out across the country I thought it'd be the perfect gift to make for her birthday last week.

After talking to my handy friends Mark and LeDonna (they gave me lots of tips), I went to the home improvement store and searched for the wood scraps bin - I never would have known there even is such a thing but there is. You pay for wood by the foot, so if someone doesn't need an entire piece of siding or trim or whatever they cut it off at the store and put the scraps in a large bin - exactly what I was looking for. I picked out a few pieces that were roughly the sizes I wanted and also bought a 8' 2x2 treated post that they cut the bottom into an angle at the store (so it'll be easier to pound into the ground if she decides to do that) but they wouldn't make the angled cuts for each arrow. The pieces didn't cost very much, I got the post and all the wood for under $20 - if you find wood to repurpose from around the house this would be a very inexpensive project. I did buy one board that is shaped like an arrow at the craft store, the rest are the scrap wood.

I had a friend cut the wood into basic arrow shapes but then of course wanted to change them a little - so I found a jigsaw in the garage (didn't know we had it - I've never used it before and I gotta say, now I'm addicted and on the lookout for things I can cut!) and re-cut the wood pieces to what I wanted. Dave was worried that I was going to make a big mess and I discovered a good way to make my cuts to control the mess (and not have to get out sawhorses) - I put the wood down on the deck and cut it over top of the gaps in the decking, obviously being careful to not go crazy and cut into the deck! Anyway, the sawdust fell thru the cracks in the deck and I didn't have anything to sweep up.

I kept the color scheme simple by just using white paint for the writing but wanted to make each arrow a little different so I found a few shades of stain in the basement and wiped them on each wood piece - Mark and LeDonna would be appalled at my technique I'm sure (I wiped it on and off with paper towels, and didn't do an even coat because I was going for a sort of "rustic" look).

The hardest part was stenciling and painting the towns and mileage - took much longer than I thought it would. I traced the letters and numbers onto the arrows and then painted them in. When they were done I sprayed them with 2 coats of outdoor urethane sealer and let them dry overnight.

On Mark's recommendation I decided to attach the arrows to the post with wood screws, I forgot he told me to make sure to buy stainless ones so they wouldn't rust - fortunately I remembered before I drove away from the hardware store and they exchanged them for me. The stainless ones are like twice the price of the regular ones but it was still under $4 for 16 of them.

After laying the whole thing out so I knew where I wanted each one to go, Dave helped me drill holes for the screws to go into - I could have done this myself but since the sign is from both of us I assigned him this job so he could take some credit for helping hahah! We put 2 screws in each board to keep them from twisting.

Jenny seems happy with her cute sign - right now she has it in a pot on her patio. I made it flat so she can hang it on the wall, put it in the garden, keep it in a pot - whatever. Not angling the signs in the actual directions they would go made it so she can put it in more places then just the garden.  I like this so much I'm seriously thinking I'll make myself one! Love it.