Signs, Signs, Everywhere a Sign

During the Lucketts weekend, I was able to meet Marian Parsons, proprietor of Miss Mustard Seed. It was on Sunday when most vendors were marking items down for the last day of the market.

I was able to score one of her hand-painted signs for $35! I remember seeing my sign in this post. I couldn't believe I was taking it home with me!

It's almost like it was meant to be. My last name is "Holste" and whenever I say it for people the first time, they always think I'm saying "Holstein". Now don't get me wrong, cows are adorable. But I'm not a cow. So I decided to just embrace the mispronunciation and and proudly display my Holstein sign in my apartment.

On Friday, I took my trash out to the famous magical dumpster and found a bunch of goodies. One piece was a dresser from Brazil. No matter how hard I tried, I could NOT fit it into my little sedan. I pushed, shoved, adjusted the seats, tried my trunk...you name it, I did it, but I just couldn't get it to fit. So, I resigned myself to the realization that I would have to leave it while I went to work. Such a sad moment. (When I came home later on that afternoon, I went straight to the dumpster to see if it was still there but it was gone. Sniff...)

But I did score a free piece of pine! I thought to myself, "this would make a GREAT sign" like those I saw at Marian's booth. She also did a post on how to make new wood look old, so I thought I would employ her ideas to age my piece of pine.I started simple with using a screw and creating holes in clusters.

Then I turned the screw sideways and made some other fun scar marks.

Then I used a hammer to create some gouges and banged on the edges to get rid of the "perfectly cut" look.

After adding some old character to the wood, I started thinking about colors. A few months ago, I painted a desk for my boss with a mustard seed yellow base and a red top. I thought the combination would work well for this sign. So I whipped up a batch of Miss Mustard Seed's Mustard Seed Yellow.

This paint is fabulous for wood. It acts almost like a stain and soaks really well into raw wood.

After the first coat of Mustard Seed Yellow, I sealed it with Miss Mustard Seed's Tough Coat. Tough Coat is a very versatile product. It's water-based and can be used as a sealer to prevent bleed through or to lock in moldy smells. It can be used as a top coat if you're looking for a finish for a piece that will have lots of traffic and high-use (such as a coffee table or bookshelf). For this project, I wanted to use Tough Coat as a sealer. I put a layer on to seal the Mustard Seed Yellow.

It also helps if you place your tough coat (or any other product) in a separate container. That way, you won't contaminate your bottle.

After the Tough Coat was dry, it was time to add the top layer of Tricycle.

I've heard Marian describe Tricycle as a difficult color to work with. It's in a plastic baggie inside of the regular pouch. I dumped the powder into the baggie and it made a bit of a mess. I measured out my powder and used the mixer. What I found was that the powder sat on the top of the water and it took a good bit of mixing to get it to dissolve. I used slightly hot water to help the powder mix in.

After 2 coats of Tricycle, I got the good 'ol rooster stencil out. The entire stencil wouldn't fit on the board so I decided to use certain elements instead.