Wednesday, July 31, 2013

DIY Race Bib Holder

As runners, we are extremely proud of the races that we take on. Be it a 5k or a marathon, we cherish the medals and the bibs that we have earned on each of those races. I have been looking around for the perfect bib holder for a while now. I hate that I keep my medals and bibs in an iPad box. They deserve to be displayed. And since I cannot find anything that suited my taste or my budget, I decided to make my own.
Here are the materials that I used:

I bought the board and the stencils from Michael's Arts and Crafts Store with a 40% off coupon. The wood finish, hooks and everything else was from a local hardware store. Total cost was around $15 (superhero ring not included).
My plan was to stain the wood and use the stencils to add the design or a saying with the stencils. It took me a couple of days to figure out what I should use as a heading. I decided to stencil in race distances. Apparently, my Martha Stewardish skills do not extend to stenciling.
I taped the stencils down, but apparently not good enough and the paint bled all over the place. So, back to Michael's I went.
FAIL!

    Armed with another 40% off coupon I purchased another board. This time I decided to go with pre-cut wood letters which I will attach with wood glue. The wood letters were .25 cents each since they were on sale (ka-ching!) I had the wood glue already at home. The board cost me another $7.49.
 This time, I glued on the letters "RACES" on top of the board. I also drilled the holes for a frame hanger and for the bib hooks first. I used my smallest bibs to measure the distance between the hangers. It is much easier to punch additional holes on the longer bibs than to measure different hanger sizes.













 I then stained the wood with a light, cherry stain. I attached the hooks after the stain had dried.  I am still deciding whether I should varnish the bib hanger.

TA-DAH!! This is the finished product!
I am quite proud of the finished product. It looks clean and simple.  My next project will be the medal hanger.
What do you think,  should I varnished the board?

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