Brothers til the End

I decided to use another piece of the leftover wood from our playsets today.  I just wasn't loving the bridge project as a coat hanger so I decided to make a new project.

The piece I used today was one of the landings on one side of the playset:

Yes, there is a board missing.  I was going to nail it back on but decided I could work with it the way it was (that does not in any way imply I was feeling lazy).  Besides, the 3 pieces sticking out on the bottom were perfect to hang the hooks.

I did not prep the wood.  I just got all crazy and jumped right in to white-washing it.  Or, more acurately, grey-washing it.  I mixed a little bit of "Shark Loop" grey paint and some water and covered the boards.

It really looks like you are painting it white when you first apply the wash.

I only applied 1 coat this time because again I was being lazy I knew it would be perfect.  I made sure to get the edges all around and the hangy down parts where the hooks would go.

And then I waited for it to dry...

While that dried I went inside and used my Cricut to cut out the names of the boys.  And then...I had a brilliant idea.  I wanted to put a great brother quote on the board.  It only took me a minute to find just the right one.  It only took me a minute 2 hours to cut out the letters for the quote.

By the time I was done, the board was dry.  Then, it was time to place the letters... and replace them... and place them again.  FINALLY I was happy with how they were laid out:

(Yep, I had to stand on a stool to take the picture...I'm that short.)

The Mod Podge and water mixture was already mixed up - leftover from my last project.  I grabbed my paintbrush and slathered it on.  I was almost done with the quote and was just getting ready to slather the boys' names when this happened:

(I always work in the garage cause this is not uncommon.)

I dropped the bucket I was using for the Mod Podge and almost all of it splashed out.  As it turns out, I had just enough to finish up!!  

The Mod Podge looks awfully white before it finishes drying...

but, it always dries clear.  Every time.  It's. like. magic!

I put the sign out in the sun to dry 

while I went back in to clean up my tornado of a craft area find the perfect coat hangers.  And that's when I remembered the door knobs I bought from the Re-Store!!!  Yay! No bent nails used as hooks for my boys!  

(And, aren't door knobs the perfect place to hang stuff?)

I also found these

 to use to hang the hanger on the wall.  Yes, I did start the project with absolutely no idea of how I was going to get this thing on the wall.

I was going to let the wood thing (I'm still trying out words to figure out exactly what to call it) lean against the wall until Burger got home so he could hang it.  But then I remembered IamamomandIamawomanandIcandowhateverIsetmymindtoandhearmeroarandallthatstuff that I was pretty handy and could probably get this thing on the wall all by myself.  

And that's just what I did:

(You can't tell but that is actually hanging straight on the wall.)

And here's an action shot:

This turned out to be one of my favorite projects ever.

ps.  Did I mention that when the boys are being snarky and fighty, I am going to make all of them stand in front of it and make them read it together?  I promise to post a picture!

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