~thrifty thursday project~

2 reasons that I really love this weeks project.

1~it was FREE

2~it includes one of our favorite things~our puppy

I mean, who wouldn't love this little guy? :)

I decided I would make a sign by painting a silhouette of him.

Here is what you will need.

The first step proved to be the hardest part.

Take a photo of your dog standing from the side.

Sounds easy, but we went through lots of treats to get this shot!

Scrap wood.

I got this out of a free pile~oh yeah!

Gotta love free piles!

This is the part I didn't get a photo of~hate it when that happens.

I get on a roll and my brain forgets the camera, sorry.

I took all the natural wood, meaning the wood with no paint, and nailed it to a large piece of wood cut to 2'x2'.

Ok, next step is to print out your dogs photo and take it to a copy center and enlarge it to fit your wood piece. You can do this in several sections and tape together like I did.

I didn't know what size would look good, so I made two copies and chose the one that looked best once I got it home.

I went with the bigger of the two.

Then you'll want to cut out your paper template around the dogs body, and tape it to the wood sign where you'd like it to be.

{I am horrible at tutorials, aren't I?}

Trace around the outline with a pencil and recycle your dog paper.

Because I know you needed this visual...... :)

Choose the color you would like your dog silhouette to be and using a liner brush,

outline the pencil line.

I started out painting it cream, but went back later and painted it over in white.

Then fill it in.

Doesn't have to be perfect because you are going to distress it later.

Aren't you glad I took 400 pictures of the obvious steps, but managed to leave out the important ones?

Once the paint is dry, you can lightly sand over it to age it a bit.

I ended up thinking it needed some sort of a frame, so I used more free scrap wood with chippy white paint cut on 45 degree angles and nailed that on with my air nailer.