Happy Mother's Day to all of the amazing mums out there - those that are present and those that are no longer with us. As one of my first subscribers, I'm pretty sure that my mum will not only read this (hi ma!), but be excited to see that her little hedgehog house has made it onto the internet. My mum loves nature and I often joke that her and my dad's garden is like a miniature nature reserve, so it seemed fitting to buy her a hedgehog house for Mother's Day. I found this wooden house with a slate roof at a local garden centre for £30 and just couldn't resist customising it a little with a hand-lettered plaque. Every summer, my parents lay out meal worms, raisins and nuts, and the same old hedgehog with a faint white streak down his back (known affectionately as 'Mr Hedgie' though he could well be a she) comes to bulk up ready for hibernation. Hopefully, this house will convince him to move permanently into her garden!
1. Prep your wood to draw on. I found this small piece of leftover fence panelling in my parent's garden and it was completely soaked, so I gave it a clean and left it to dry for a day on a radiator. I chose not to sand it down as the wood felt quite brittle but this would definitely have made drawing and painting easier!
2. Using a pencil, draw out a rough guide for your hand lettering. As the hedgehog that visits my parents' garden has been affectionately nicknamed 'Hedgie', I chose to name the hedgehog house 'Hedgie House'.
3. Paint over your pencil outline. Here I chose to use white acrylic paint so that it would contrast nicely against the wood. I have a go-to handlettering style, though generally any writing can be made to look a little more special by painting the down strokes a little thicker.
4. Once dry, protect your plaque with some clear varnish. I painted both the front and back of the plaque to protect both my handlettering and the wood itself from the elements. I used a Ronseal clear wood varnish, which gave it a nice sheen.
5. Leave the plaque to dry completely before sticking it to your hedgehog house. For this I used waterproof Uni-bond No More Nails and I have to say it worked perfectly. It stuck relatively quickly and so I only had to hold the plaque to the house for a few seconds.
... and that's it!
Did you get creative this Mother's Day?
Let me know what you think in the comments below and if you like it, share it!
♥
