Wildcard Wednesday: Weathering Wood

I like to do lots of wood crafts...in case you didn't notice.  Well, the other day, I was making a sign for someone and I had planned on making it look weathered using some stain.  Well....I went to go get my stain and it was gone!!!  GRRRRR!!!!!  If I went and bought stain then it would end up costing more than what I was charging to make the sign.  So I needed to find a way to make wood look weathered, that didn't involve staining or burning.  So I consulted some creative friends and browsed the internet.  I found this idea and figured, what the hey....I'll try it.

It was super easy and I was happy with the results.  (and it is super cheap!!!!)

You get 1 wad of steel wool.  I found the packages of 12 at the dollar store.  Put it in a glass jar and pour in 1 cup of vinegar and let it sit.  I let mine sit for about a day.  You need to give the acid time to breakdown the steel wool.  You won't see the water color change so don't freak and think nothing is happening (that's what I sorta did)

After it has sat, get your supplies together.  Use an old paintbrush. 

Then just paint away.  You won't see a color change right away, but give it a few minutes.

This was my est board before I tried it on the board I was doing my sign. (I didn't want to ruin the good piece)  The far left side was 3 coats, the next was 2 coats, and the little bit on the bottom rightish is one coat.  So you can get this to do varying shades.

Here is my wood.  You can kinda see the patches I missed but it came out pretty dark.  And check out that splatter mess on my table....Here's my advice....put some newspaper down.  I had to use bleach to get it off.

Here is my finished product.  (my missed Patches were covered by ribbon)

This is such a nice, cheap alternative to staining.  The only downside is you have to wait a day for the steel to react and of course you get that lovely vinegar smell.  The smell will fade on the wood after a few days.  And you can still use mod podge on the board and it won't affect the coloring.