Beachy Things - A tutorial

I still can't believe the bathroom is all done.
My husband came home last night from a weeklong scout camp
and was very impressed.
He said he couldn't believe I made it all out of pallet wood.
I wasn't sure if he meant he couldn't believe I could make stuff like that,
or that pallet wood could be made into such cool stuff.

Either way I'm happy with it.

So here's a quick tutorial on how I did the wood signs and surf board for this wall.

I looked all over for a cute surf board that was DIY and didn't really find anything 

so I made up my own design.  

I'm really pleased at how it all came together.  

Here's how I did it:

First I got 4 similar sized slats of pallet wood, cut them to the shape I wanted,
(mostly freehanded), then sanded them down.

I got the Kids involved helping me paint each slat.
I was a fun easy thing for the kids to help do.

After drying and a light sanding, 

I used my Cricut Storybook cartridge to cut out the hibiscus flower out of contact paper.  

It's much, much cheaper than vinyl and sticks perfectly but not permanently for projects like this.  

The wavy stripe was also cut out of contact paper and spaced to give the lines I wanted.  

Then it got a quick coat of red acrylic paint.  

I let it dry slightly, and remove the contact paper.  

Sand it again a little.

I followed the same process for the surf, sand, sun, and beach signs.  

The font was from the Billionaire cartridge for the Cricut.  

Sorry the sand sign is upside down.  I work that way sometimes.

After the paint dried, I gave each piece a coat of finishing wax.  

Love that stuff!  

I knew they would be in a moist bathroom and I definitely 

wanted the pieces to last so they got a wax coating to protect the wood.

I let everything dry in the hot Arizona Sun.  

It only took a little while.  

I guess there are some benefits to 100 degree weather.  

I think drying paint is the only one.

I added the D-Ring hanging hardware to the backs of each piece along with some hanging wire.

Mark the placement of each piece and hang.  

Done!

I will share some more of the how-to's next week.

Happy Beachy Day!