My mom has always kept amazing gardens, and in the heart of summer, they become whimsical, miniature jungles. She recently overhauled some beds for the spring planting, and my Dad wanted to surprise her with a new garden sign. He came up with the text, and asked me to design and make the sign: The Hobbit Garden - Cathy's Slice of Heaven.

The sign and stake are made from an 8 foot 5/4"x6" cedar deck board (linked below). Cedar is great for outdoor projects like this, since it is naturally weather resistant. I sketched the "Hobbit Garden" lettering to look like old, gnarled pieces of wood, fitting the whimsical aesthetic. Even though The Hobbit Garden feels like a magical, miniature jungle, we wanted the sign to fit into my Mom's tasteful, Cape Cod home. So, I did the rest of the lettering in a relatively delicate script. I think that this balances out the sign really nicely.

I did all the carving with a little ball carving bit on a flexshaft attached to my rotary tool. The big, bold letters had a lot more room for error than the delicate script, and carving them first was a great confidence booster before I had to be more exact with my work. The lower sign, Cathy's Slice of Heaven, is from the same deck board, just ripped in half. After the carving, I restored the roundover to the cut edge of this piece with my sander.

I used two coats of white paint to bring out the carvings. I was debating just leaving it at one coat, but I'm really happy I went with two - it really solidifies the white and amplifies its contrast with the cedar.

Finally, I cut a taper into a piece of the ripped deck board to make a matching stake. I attached each sign to the stake with two screws through the front, but there was still a bit of wiggle, so I added a couple more screws through the back. If I were to do this project again, I would just screw through the back and skip the screws on the front.

The sign arrived today at my parents' house, and I'll post some pictures to Instagram once they have it planted in its final Hobbit Garden home!

Thanks for watching :)

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Cedar deck board: [ Ссылка ]

TOOLS I USED IN THIS VIDEO (affiliate links):

WEN Rotary Tool with Flexshaft: [ Ссылка ]
Rotary tool accessory set (includes ball carving bit): [ Ссылка ]
Japanese Pull Saw: [ Ссылка ]
Ryobi Drill/Driver Set: [ Ссылка ]

VIDEO/AUDIO EQUIPMENT (affiliate links):
Camera - Panasonic Lumix G85: [ Ссылка ]
Microphone - Rode Videomicro: [ Ссылка ]
Voiceover Microphone - Blue Snowball iCE USB Mic: [ Ссылка ]

MERCH: [ Ссылка ]

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