A year and a half ago or so, when my parents had decided to move to independent living and took out a lease on an apartment there, my mom saw a sign hanging in one of the apartments they toured that had this phrase on it, and mentioned to me that she’d love to have one to hang in their new place. Well, it took me a while to get around to it but I’ve finally managed to make it happen. (Shhh, she doesn’t know about it yet, don’t tell!)
I combined bits and pieces of some free vector images to create the floral spray, then cut it and the text out of eucalyptus hardboard so I could play with colors before finalizing the design. (There’s a lot more purple and pink in the roses than shows in the photo.)
I ended up just keeping the hardboard, because it looked so good once I got it painted that there didn’t seem to be any point in doing it all over again with something else. The background is white birch plywood and the frame is white oak ply. I used Uni Posca markers to color the letters and flower spray, and gave them all a few coats of spray lacquer before gluing in place. The background and frame are finished with Tung oil.
It looks great. Is the frame laser cut as well? It looks like the edges are black so I’m guessing yes? Did you have to compensate for kerf at all to get that nice tight fit?
It is. I kerf-corrected and flip-mated the pieces to minimize the size of the joints; they still show more than I thought they would, though. Thinking on it, when I do the same with inlays I have to tap them into place with a hammer, which logically compresses the joints more than just pressing them together, so maybe that’s why.
Absolutely gorgeous sign. She’s going to love it. I like the mixture of fonts you used; and I thought “uni posca” pens before I read your text (your fault I have a whole collection of them ). The frame you added makes it stand out and I love how you raised the flower edges. Very successful design!