Finishing the teen/ ten boards

I had a little bit of spare time to work on those this weekend.

I was planning on trying to stamp the numbers on the board and wooden chips. So I used the number pattern provided by JHJ publishing (although I am not sure that it is still available since the site has changed) for the small number cards. THe font is primer print.

Using a carving technique seen here I copied the letter on a carving pad, and carved them. It was easy enough, and I was rather satisfied with the results. But when I started stamping them with the acrylic paint I had, I wasn't impressed with the results. The lines weren't as clean and well defined as I wanted them to be.

So I had the idea from here to use a ink pen. So I went to a local art store, and ask the salesperson a good ink pen to use on wood. She wasn't really sure that this would yield the results I wanted, she thought the ink might run and make a fuzzy line. So she suggested this instead:



which works like a charm.

So I exactoed the JHJ publishing pattern ( again, the small number cards) , and then drew the numbers on the wood using the "pochoir" method:



and with no running whatsoever.

The lines are sharp and clean, just as I wanted them to be.

It dries quickly, and since there are differents types of point, you can have sharp or larger depending on what you need.

The only thing left to do is to seal this, so that the paint doesn't chip.



I have been using Mod podge for the red rods, and I really like the results. And since it is non toxic, I like it even better. So I will be using it again to seal the boards and pieces that goes with it. I plan to use it with a small paint brush.

Hopefully this will be done by the end of the day...

I am please to report that we are almost ready to go. Of course, you are not always completely ready when homeschooling, a concept that I am clearly understanding, but the basis, on which I wanted to start, is almost done. Good thing, because this belly of mine is also getting bigger...