Garden Sign

After seeing some amazing new projects on the MOAG section today, I almost decided not to post. But I’ve been working on this for a week so I’m going to share it.

Someone I know requested a sign to go above their door to their garden. They sent a picture of a simple sign, and said “like that,” so I said ok…well…what she really wanted wasn’t like that.

It took a few days of back and forth emailing to get the dimensions down, and then the details. So the actual sign making part only took a day…plus sanding and sealing, etc (like having to go the next day to buy more wood to redo it). Well, it’s ready to deliver.

A couple things I would change if I was ever going to do this again…I thought if I butt the boards up next to each other, it wouldn’t show quite as much that they are separate boards. I was wrong, what I should’ve done, which I realized too late, was engrave it, and flip it over to cut. I forgot about the difference between the entrance and exit when the laser hits the wood, so the fronts never actually touch the way I did it.

Wood filler didn’t work for me, it was still obvious…so I think I really don’t understand how to use wood filler (I didn’t use any on the final sign).

Also, when I was splitting up the file to cut, I was focused on how to not waste as much wood as possible. So I didn’t even think about where I was separating the words. I ended up redoing the middle section of the sign because my first try I split the design right in a word…I changed the file and tried again, but I didn’t pay as much attention to symmetry, so I’m not happy about the spacing after the word “grows.”

I left the masking I applied on the butterflies because I like the color it added. There are a million coats of shellac and a clear coat over it, but it will probably peel eventually. She wanted a light wood and no stain or paint, so I think it’s ready to go now.

Anyways, long story short, I made a sign on my GF Basic. I don’t have a passthrough, so it needed to be done in pieces. The sign is approximately 6.5 feet long. No bananas, but I do have a shop towel roll in there for size. The first picture is the one she sent me when she asked if I could make a sign…I was expecting that size.


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Very nice work and beautiful design. Great job!

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Thanks. I like the butterflies. :sweat_smile:

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Having a garden can be a lot of work but it can grow on you after a while… :smirk:

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When she told me the phrase she wanted on there…I wasn’t thinking garden at all…I was imagining a tiny spy camera in the middle…I still have the middle section that I didn’t use…maybe I should put a little doorbell camera in there and hang it over my garage… :sweat_smile:

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That was a lot of work, and came out great!

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My Sweet and Beautiful Cousin,

You forgot to add — that you and I are now each other’s emotional support therapists.

Everything was accomplished this week without drugs or alcohol.

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That’s true. I thought about using the sign for kindling a couple of times Who knew something so flat could be so frustrating.

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Nicely done. There’s nothing apparently amiss with the word spacing. We are our own worst critics. :slightly_smiling_face:

(BTW, that’s why husbands never finish a project. That way if someone notices a flaw, they can say they’re planning to fix it when they finish whatever’s undone.)

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Life is so much clearer now. I can’t believe I didn’t notice it before. I thought I was pretty good figuring out that he likes to break things that were in good working condition because he wants something to work on.

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I do too!

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That is major!..and majorly nice work!

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Good on you for sticking with it! I would have been tempted to strangle the requester. Your sign really looks great!

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This is lovely! I really like the arched design and how the pieces cleverly connect! Very nice work!

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Great piece of work.

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Well done. Love the way you joined them together. Good work.

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Omg this is my life.

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Mine too… Happens every time…

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I especially love the Archie’s Garden sign.

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Lol, the Archie’s garden sign is not mine. I didn’t make it. It’s the picture she sent me when she was describing what she wanted it to look like. Apparently all she really wanted was an arch, screw holes, and similar “raw wood” edges.

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