Finding Your Creativity & DIY Paddles

Lately I’ve been pulled towards crafting.  Growing up I never considered myself a crafty or creative person.  I am not really sure where this narrative of myself came from, but I think it’s closely related to my once limited definition of “creativity” and how I closely linked it to just drawing.  Of course, I no longer hold those beliefs and I associate creativity to a number of different ways to express and create ideas and thoughts.  I started scrapbooking in my late teens and well into my twenties and LOVED IT.  I made several books and have several unfinished ones as well.  I have the most beautiful baby book documenting our oldest child’s first year of life.  However my second child’s book has been abandoned, and that’s one of my greatest regrets honestly.  Why?  Because it’s hard to remember all the tiny details after so many years have gone by, and with Halie I  was able to document it all.  Enter mom guilt.  I am sure many of your reading this have this same experience between your  first and second, or third, children in some way or another.  As life became busier and busier, and I threw myself into other wonderful pursuits, my work, running more and training more, doing my masters and enjoying being a mother, something had to go, so this creative outlet slipped away. 

 I’ve often talked about this blog being born out a desire to be creative with my clothes.  So when I did my very first GYPO style challenge several years ago, I became interested in using my creativity with my clothes.  I found a new and not overly time-consuming way to create.  But lately I’ve been drawn to more “project” type of creativity.  I generally don’t like long term projects but prefer short and quick little things.  I am someone that strives to get a check mark and cross it off my list, so quick gratification is important.  My first little project were these paddles for the lake to showcase our house number.  I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted and I quickly sketched it out and explained to my dad and my husband how I wanted the paddles to look on our cabin.  Their job was to figure out how to make a notch in the paddles so they could crisscross and I went to work on making the design come to life.

This is what I needed:

• Chalk pain in white and dark blue (I got them from HomeDepot)
• Sand paper (I bought a variety pack, you don’t need much)
• Brushes (Home depot)
• Painters tape
• Artminds Varnish (this is the thing I researched the most.  I went with this glossy one that was created SPECIFICALLY for outdoor protection as I would be having it outside through all the harsh winters, hail and rain)
• House number from Michaels

Process:

1. Sketch out your design on a piece of paper.
2. Sand the paddles lightly down.
3. Pain the paddles white x 2.  Let the paint dry between each coat, approximately an hour.  I choose to paint them white first to give them a good solid base, like a primer.
   
4. When the paddles were completely dry, I measured and marked the design that I wanted to paint the blue.
   
5. I then painted the arrows with two coats of blue.  I didn’t take the painters tape off between each coat and that worked out well for me, but I did both coats within one afternoon. 
6.  I bought the house number at Michaels and used Crazy Glue to stick it on. 
7. Once everything was dry, I varnished the paddles with two coats.  They recommend that you let them curate for three weeks before putting them outside but I didn’t follow those instructions and the paddles have had no damage through the summer rains and wind.  They look perfect!
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That’s it!

 I’d love to hear what your own creative outlets are in the comments below.  Thanks for stopping by today.