THE CAVENDER DIARY

This one’s a little “crafty”……sorry.

We don’t go to Hobby Lobby very often,

Practically never.

I don’t agree with their politics……they don’t approve of , well, just about everything in our lives.

But it’s the place that all the “Lady-Bloggers” have been going on about. Row upon row of plastic Christmas balls (in July, mind you), ceramic hippos next to pipe cleaners, and almost everything has scripture printed on it. What could be more wholesome?

I’ve been watching these 8″ paper mache letters on the website for weeks.

They’re 3 bucks each. Which isn’t bad….but I knew there’d be a 50 off promotion if I could wait long enough.

The other morning I checked the site….Half off. Short road trip later, we returned with 3 complete words.

NO, I’m not going to spray paint them silver and spell out E.A.T. to hang in the kitchen…….If I ever do, shoot me.

I have a much better plan. But first I have to make them look like…….ummmm, not cardboard.

I used craft paint, in “Light Ivory”, to paint the fronts of each letter.

The sides I painted “Drizzle Grey”, just for a contrast really.

I didn’t like the option for an I, it looked too much like a Roman numeral, so I made my own with a H.

(Used a Dremel to cut the side off, traced the open side onto a grocery bag, cut the piece out of the bag and glued it on with Elmer’s)

Pretty perfect I, if I do have to say so myself.

Now, for something to mount them on. I imagined an arrow. You know, pointing to the lake.

I started with primed cedar from Home Depot. It’s about 1 1/2 inches wide and 1/2 inch thick. OOOOhhh, and about 10 foot long.

I cut them down to 7 feet with a 45 degree angle at the ends.

Then I cut 2 8″ angled pieces to form the arrow head.

Like so.

Shot it all together with a brad nailer…and added a few small pieces for support in the middle.

Painted it with the light ivory craft paint too.

To roughen-up and “age” my arrow, I sanded as much of it as I could with 60 grit sandpaper.

I used 120 grit sandpaper on the cardboard letters.

Just that little bit makes them look nicely aged and patinaed.

See?

I attached my letters to the arrow with Liquid Nails for Small Projects. Love that stuff.

OK, Now to make my sign look just like it was hanging on the side of the road for a few years…..

I mixed, yet one more color of craft paint, Trail Tan, with about a cup of warm water in a spray bottle. With my sign standing up right, I spritzed the entire top to simulate rain, or dust…or something like that.

Pretty simple,

So why “SNAKE BITE LAKE”?

CAMP CRYSTAL LAKE was my first thought.

And then BIG SNAKE LAKE, from the Simpsons. (Hint, Camp Krusty is located there)

SNAKE BITE LAKE just had a nice sound to it…..

Happy crafting.