I have always thought of myself as someone who is very punctual in most things that I do but when it comes to gift giving, that couldn’t be further from the truth! My father’s birthday was in September and I am still putting together his gift! In my defense though I ordered a piece for it online and it was on backorder for three weeks. Regardless, I think it will be well worth the wait.
For my entire life (actually his) my Dad has always had a project on the go. There is never a time where he is not fixing or creating something. So naturally, this summer he built a garage for himself; and well deserved. So because he is so excited about getting to work in the new garage I wanted to give him something to help with all his upcoming projects; a beer bottle opener.
I always prefer to put a little personal touch to the gifts I give people and if I am able to get my creative juices flowing, even better. So the old man is getting a homemade custom bottle opener. This is the second of its kind, as I made one for my boyfriend Aaron for Father’s Day last year. The slogan may be a little unorthodox for Father’s Day but like I said earlier, personal touches ha!
The materials I used for these projects are:
- A wooden board (choose your size according to the design you want to add)
- A wall mount bottle opener. I purchased both of these on Amazon.com but I have since seen them in specialty liquor stores
- Wood stain – I used Minwax Wood Finish Jacobean for Dad’s and Weathered Oak for Aaron’s
- Paint markers – I used Elmers Painters which I purchased at Walmart for these projects
- Screws
- A mason jar
- Zip tie (although next time I’ll use a hose clamp. Don’t even get me STARTED on the hunt for a hose clamp at my local hardware store)
- Extra strong magnets
Step one: Stain the wood. If you have never used stain before, I would advise that you apply it with a rag or industrial strength paper towel, not a paintbrush. You are staining the wood not painting it and a brush does not do as good of a job getting the color into the wood without it pooling or looking streaky. The nice thing about wood stain is you can adjust how light or dark the color is by wiping off or adding more.
Step Two: Decide on the placement of the opener and the mason jar if you choose to add this, but don’t secure them just yet. I wanted more text on Dad’s opener so I decided to leave the jar out this time.
Step Three: Once the stain is completely dry, write, paint or decorate the wood to your heart’s delight. It may take a few coats depending how bold of a look you are going for and how dark the underlying stain is. I did a few trail runs on paper that I cut out the same size as the project because I am a perfectionist and the lightest offset of letter placement would drive me crazy!
Step Four: Once the paint has dried, secure the opener and jar with the screws.
Step Five: I wanted to be able to put the opener on the fridge so I glued on several extra strong magnets on the back. It may look a little excessive but it holds so nicely on the fridge and I don’t have to worry about the guys getting too rough with it after a few beer!
Step Six: Open a beer!
That’s all folks.
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