The Duck and Buck

These are some pretty awesome signs I started making after seeing several in stores like Hobby Lobby, etc.  They are made to mimic different wooden slats nailed together.  However, like my floating shelf panel in my previous post, I used 1/2" plywood for the signs.

But first, I printed out a silhouette image of a duck and a buck to give me the outline I needed.  I then taped the image to each board I was going to use.  It is a good idea to leave 3 or 4 inches on all four sides of your panel so that it doesn't get too thin anywhere around your image.  With the image taped on, you can trace with a pencil, pressing through the paper to leave an outline imprint on your piece of plywood.  Once I have done that, I usually remove the paper and fill in the imprint with sharpie just to give myself a more clear cut lines to cut long.

Next, I drilled a few holes on the INSIDE of my image to give me an entry point for my jigsaw.  So, I busted out the jigsaw and started cutting along my lines.  It gets a little tricky once you get to the smaller sections so just make sure you are leaving plenty of support for the jigsaw so you don't break off the thin sections of the antlers!

After your shape is cutout, the next thing to do is cut your grooves.  That is what makes these signs so cool I think.  Just decide on whether you want a standard width slat or a varying width slat, raise your table saw to about half the depth of your plywood, and run it through at whatever intervals you decided on.  This gives it the illusion of being several different pieces of wood!

Now on to the finish.  To make it look a bit more like individual pieces, I recommend taking black spray paint and painting all of the edges and inside all of the grooves.  Then, take a sander and sand all of front surface of the sign.  This will leave the grooves and sides black to hide the plywood and also leave a bit of black to give the front a 'weathered' look.  After sanding everything down, apply your favorite color stain!  Simple as that!

These signs are great for custom images or for batching out several at a time!  You can also paint these a solid color and they still look great!  Below is an example I did that is similar to the Duck Commander logo and I painted the whole sign blue!

   Another option I have considered doing is attaching a fabric or a different colored panel behind the main panel.  That would add some depth and interesting contrast!