Sunday, January 29, 2012

Volunteering to Burn Up a Table

As many of you know crafting and cakes are my hobby and I have a day job. Fortunately my day job allows me a creative outlet on many days. Every February we have a state conference for 4-H volunteer leaders. It is a great chance for the volunteers to receive training, network, and they raise funds for the Volunteer Leaders Association. As part of the fundraising there are basket raffles, a country store and on the last night an auction. This year the district we are in is holding the auction, and I have a tradition of making sure there is something in the auction that will hopefully fetch $100 or more. This year I am unable to bring a really big item so I am making a table with the new 4-H logo on it.
I am starting with a round that I purchased at Lowes that is one inch thick and has a 15 inch diameter. Then I printed the logo from the computer and traced it with a good old fashioned piece of carbon paper under it. With the logo traced and in place it was time to start wood burning. That took a bit of patience with all the words in the new logo. A few hours later I had the entire logo burned in. I have to admit I took a couple of breaks because the wood burning iron got a bit hot, too hot to handle almost. After debating for a bit I took a paint pen to outline the words but the paint started to run. After giving it time to dry, a little sanding block allowed me to almost erase some of the run off paint. I chose to fill in the rest of the lettering with the paint pen but not outline it so it would not run causing the letters to run together.

With the green line and clover finished, it was time to let it dry. Then a few coats of polyurethane that allowed the wood to darken and have a nice sheen. After it was all dry it was time to attach three









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