The Panther Shack

The PTO had a contest at my son's school to rename the school store. The winning submission was "The Panther Shack", love it. I had a few different mock ups of designs for the principal to pick. He choose this giant paw print, which is just great, and being it's a "shack" I thought using reclaimed wood would make the perfect sign!

Here is the finished sign sitting in my living room. Don't mind the horrible floors, we're in the midst of remodeling.

I started with pallet wood and staggered the pieces once they were cut to the desired lengths (by my ever helpful husband)

We screwed them all together with a piece of plywood for stability

I started with a base coat of white, then added a layer of green

Once that was dry I add a little bit of a darker green then sanded it down to give it a worn look.

I cut out a giant paw print in cardstock with the Cameo and traced the pieces onto the wood. That made it really easy to paint the paw print on in proportion. 

Once I stood the sign up I realized it was a little off center, woops. But I came up with a plan to remedy that. Sometimes making a mistake makes you change or add to your project in a way you wouldn't have thought of.

And here's the finished product installed on the school store door. I added the line "school supplies and more..." down the side where I ended up with extra space. I'm very pleased with how it came out and even more pleased by the reactions at school. Go Panther Pride!

The paint I used is Behr from Home Depot. I bought the small sample jars of flat laytex. The lighter shade is called Grassy Field, the darker shade is Vineyard. Once the paint had dried I sprayed a layer of matt coat over the whole thing. The panther head was cut from Oracal black 651 vinyl, the name was cut using Dark Green, and White for the words down the side. It helped to get them to stick by heating the wood with my heat gun first, then once they were applied I melted them in a bit with the heat gun again. It really made it look smooth, seamless and less sticker-like.

Thanks for stopping by!