Homemade Signs – a project for the home and garden

I do love pallet signs. Homemade and bought. I have a few in the home. I have one which announces ‘Good Morning’ when you open your eyes in the morning whether it’s going to be or not. Several to remind you which room is which in case you should lose your way and more recently delicate handwritten paper tags telling you they are ‘pretty flowers’ you are looking at and also what time of year it is, lest you should forget. And in the garden I have an array of homemade pallet signs to add a dose of intrigue as to what might grow if we’re lucky. As with many of my home crafts, todays project is a simple and inexpensive one, made with an off cut of wood destined for the log burner pile, a selection of left over paints and a bit of string. A project done and dusted in a just a few hours… ready?

Last summer I created these homemade pallet signs for the garden…

Over at Belles I have a further two homemade pallet signs. One which confirms why I spend time there in the first place and the other an old sign from the days I kept hens. In time, I may revisit the whole hen/duck thing… let’s not share this with Mr M for now though.

I use a variety of ways to create the pallet signs from transfers, to paints to Sharpies to craft lettering.  Most of the ideas come from the wonderful inspiration which is Pinterest, usually with a twist or two of my own.

This week, in honour of last weeks post, I am making one for the newest garden project…the wildflower garden. So to begin I lightly sanded this battered bit of wood simply to avoid splinters as opposed to making it look new. No primer was used since I was aiming for a rough and primitive look and just two thin, quick coats of Farrow & Balls Ammonite. I had intended to use the pink paint in the photo as another base coat although I changed my mind and stuck simply with the greyish base.

I decided on cornflowers as the theme for this garden sign. I am particularly partial to these blue flowers we have in our gardens and having never drawn or painted cornflowers before, I found this fabulous video on YouTube and then had a go at painting the summer flowers using acrylics I have had for years in the craft cupboard. No laughing at the next photos, remember I bare my soul to you each week and Monet I am not.

Once I was happy with the result and reminded myself I was not aiming for acceptance to the RA, I attempted a similar design at either end of the wood.

It was intentional for the overall look of this homemade sign to be rustic, cum shabby. I hoped for the writing to be childlike creating a simple whimsical feel. A quick spray to protect the finished craft with this and here’s my wildflower garden sign. A hope of what might grow this year, if we are lucky. And if there’s not too much growth in year one, we will at least be reminded of what will be there in years to come.

As with these earlier craft projects of mine you can read about here, there are so many variations which could work with this theme. It would be perfectly acceptable to glam the whole project up if that was the look you were aiming for in your own garden. Any one of these homemade signs would make wonderful gifts for family and friends. And with Fathers Day just around the corner, how about a garden sign and perhaps a selection of handwritten or painted vegetable and plant markers? Even better when the little people in your lives make the thoughtful gift. I use these wooden sticks to remind me which seeds I’ve planted and where. You will not be surprised to learn I found the lollipop sticks in the reduced section of the local art shop; simply because the plastic bag they were in was torn slightly. And the others are bargain buys from good old Wilko’s. The chunkier labels are very useful in the vegetable beds and look a lot more attractive than the plastic ones I favoured in my early gardening days.

And finally I thought you might like to see these beauties gifted to me by a lovely friend recently. You know when someone gets you, when they give you such an appropriate and thoughtful gift. These are going to be used in the kitchen garden, which is situated at the side of the house and will (at some stage) be planted with herbs, beetroot, kale and spinach. Photos for another day.

How are your own gardens coming along? Slowly like mine or or you enjoying a few pickings already? Do leave me a comment, I’d love to know. It’s been a little breezy here this week and the sun has been reluctant to warm the soil up for the plants, so I’m hoping for a little more sunshine as we head into May. Have a lovely week everyone and enjoy your gardens when you can. And as always, thank you for taking the time to visit my blog x