Finished Gift

  

Here is the finished project!

      My first lesson in making a project with someone else in mind...was, shall we say...a little more of a challenge for me. So you'll remember the picture from my previous post and here is the process I went through to create the finished project.

    Looking back at the first picture I wished I had taken the time to get EVERYTHING I needed first, cut everything, assemble the sign, and then paint. However I'm not organized in this way and things kind of just come together out of necessity not plans...or at least not the kind you write down on paper cause I definitely have one in my head. 

    

    This project was a family affair, here is my son and husband "dissembling"  the planks of wood for me. They were previously cedar wood planks on a wall in my kitchen I tore down (hopefully some day in the future I'll be able to do a post about that finished project).

    We then clamped the boards together along with two small pieces of wood equally spaced on the back to be screwed down. We then drilled pilot holes and put screws in form the back. This is where a drawn out plan to follow might have been handy. As you can see below I had a few knobs I wanted attached which I did measure out and asked my husband to put on. Had I planned this all out ahead of time I could have moved the boards on the back out toward the edges a bit more to avoid him having to countersink a screw for one of the knobs that lined up with the board on the back....yeah yeah yeah. 

     Still turned out just fine but I might have actually had this done when I wanted to if I had planned ahead.

     I normally paint/do projects while the little one is sleeping but I wanted to get this one done and thought he could paint with me. We sure had fun but after the second time of getting a paint brush thrown at my back I decided to hold off on my painting.

    These are the bottles I choose to use for the sign, a wine my friend likes since being 8 months pregnant I wouldn't be keeping it and giving it to her instead. First you have to remove the labels, soap and water works most of the time. The label on the back was a bit stubborn and this is what we always use to remove sticky stuff http://www.homedepot.com/p/Citrus-Magic-3-5-oz-Tropical-Orange-All-Natural-Odor-Eliminating-Spray-Air-Freshener-3-Pack-612172143/202559646#.UYgDvbWsh8E I have no clue why but it works.

    Then you want to measure and tape off where you want to cut your bottle at, getting a straight line with the tape helps you out the most when your using a glass cutter.

    This is a Hyde brand glass cutter, a nifty cheap little tool that works so well. Make sure you go slow and get a good score on the glass.

    Now there are a lot of methods out there for cutting the glass but the simplest and cleanest line I have ever gotten is just simply using cold and hot water ...you just have to keep doing it back and forth until it pops clean off.

    This is what you will end up with, the lines are pretty well straight but you will need to sand the edges as they are a little sharp.

    Here is the finished project, I was going to take pictures of how to attach the bottles but the hardware store didn't have the real attachments I wanted so I had to offset the bottles from the wood and use simple pipe braces. I think that if you lived somewhere with a better hardware store you could find something more attractive in the plumbing section. Also make you sure you triple check everything before you post pictures if its a gift for someone, as was nicely pointed out to me I got the year they were married wrong! Opps, already fixed but boy did that make me feel silly.

    I didn't include pictures on me doing the lettering because no one was around to take picture while I was painting. I think there are much simpler ways to achieve this but I printed out what I wanted, cut out the letters and traced around them with pencil. Using card stock or creating a stencil would have really sped up the process

    Hope you guys enjoyed this one!