Come on PAINTERS!!!
Help here!!! Wake up wake up wake up!!!!
Would not something like this get more hits posted on the crafts site? I can tell the guy how to do this from the perspective of either artist color or interior paint. The latter will require he wait for paint to cure!
Basics I guess.
1. Layout your project.
2. Carve the saying you want into a piece of 1/4 ply, masonite or I suppose hot press--not cold press--illustration board.
3. Prime everything being careful not to fill your carved message.
4. Paint the base layer with the dark color you want to have show through for everything. Let it dry and cure.
5. Paint, not glaze, over it with with the color you want for the final background. Let it dry and cure.
6. Distress the top layer of your choice to reveal the bottom with sandpaper, dental "sand blaster", fine point scraper, cue tips or sacrificial artists brushes dipped in paint stripper, ultrafine steel wool? The mistresses whips and chains?
7. Tack cloth off all the residue.
8. Clear coat.
9. Hang the hardware
As for the frame? It looked fairly simple. If you are in a area where there is cedar or redwood? See if you can find you a carpenter to rip you and dado a groove in the back of it to fit the piece with hardware, a piece of glass, and a backing. Have an art framer put it together. The cedar or redwood will gray naturally over time.
OR, here is a really rad idea. Hit a few galleries in your area and find a piece that is not going to be overly expensive--certainly no more so than you will spend on this project--- and buy her something original. Support an artist/artisan, local if possible.
Here is my worst idea. Do it in a computer program but use real hardware to whatever size you frame you find at Big Lots (just bought beautiful frosted glass things for next to nothing to adapt for Christmas next year).
One of my fave gifts was from my ex. She glue gunned old skeleton keys and hearts to a cheap wood frame but painted it gold. Inside was a special picture of us. Don't overdue this replica bro. Unless it has deep sentimental value to you? You may be violating the copyrights of the artist/creator stealing it. And in terms of it being a great piece to replicate? It's cute.
