Rustic Ironman Medal Display

In my Updated Corner Shelf post I mentioned that we went to Disneyland as a family, well that isn’t all we did. 🙂

This is such an easy project and would be perfect for any medal collection: marathon, half marathon, triathlon, dance, soccer… really ANY type of medal!

It all started with my favorite present, 70 year old barn wood, that my friend dropped at my house.  I used this same wood on my Cubby Shelf Revamp,  Sunny’s Crib turned Dog Crate, Cabinet Door’s into Childrens desk, and Rustic Industrial Kid’s Chairs…just to name a few. 🙂

It is naturally weathered, and when I brush on a top coat, it brings out all the rich beautiful color and imperfections reclaimed wood has to offer.  Pure rustic goodness.

Because I have a Cricut, I was able to cut this out using contact paper to make a stencil.   However you can totally make this without a cutting machine!

I have two easy tutorials for making a sign without a cutting machine, you will need the image you want for your sign, and a printer…

1. Ink transfer method, which I used on my Spooky Halloween Sign.
2. Or good old fashioned pencil transfer signs.  

Once I had my sign painted and stencil removed, I gave it a three coats of poly, sanding with 400 grit sandpaper between coats 1 and 2, to make it super smooth.

Then I used a really high tech method of attaching the medals. 🙂  I know right!?

Let me explain.

First of all I couldn’t find my husbands first ironman medal…so I used one of his half ironman medals to take it’s place until I find it.  (ok, that actually had nothing to do with why I hung the medals this way, but at least you know why one is a 70.3 distance….)

Second, I know my husband will be doing more ironman’s so I wanted an easy way to change them up, and painter’s tape was perfect.  It won’t destroy the ribbons, it removes easily, and it was strong enough to hold them up.  Perfect!!

Third, my plan was to put roofing nails (or you could use hooks too) on the front of the sign and just hang the medals on those.  I gave my husband this second option as well, and that is what he wanted, so that is what he got.

You can’t even see the awesome tape job on the back when it is hanging up…hee hee!

Probably my favorite part about this sign is how the white lettering looks aged.  Let me share how I got that look.  After I cut the board I sanded it really well and then wiped off the sawdust with a paper towel, lightly.  I went ahead and added the stencil and then the poly.  When I brushed on my first coat of poly there was still a little sawdust on the wood (since I didn’t wipe it fully) and it gave the white paint a little rustic look, perfect for what I wanted.

I am pretty sure this will only work on reclaimed wood, since it is weathered, but you could achieve a similar look with a dark wax.  Or, you could check the free section on craig’s list, people are always getting rid of old wood.