Pallet Infinity Sign

I'm really not fantastic at getting before, or even during pictures.  Sometimes I get the whim to make something and I am done before I have taken a single picture.

However, I don't think anything I do is horribly difficult to figure out and recreate.

For our anniversary, I wanted to make the dash man an infinity sign with our anniversary on it.

We had a pallet from some furniture laying around, for about a year.  I hadn't really thought of a use for it and actually had intended to burn it this fall.  Two DIY fails later and it had a use.

I actually started this project on a solid wood board, like this

Using this nailhead trim

I soon realized, maybe not as quickly as I'd like, that this trim, wouldn't curve enough to make the infinity symbol that I was after.

Plan 2, solid board number 2, as the first was marred beyond recognition ( I was REALLY determined to make it work with the trim), I went with tacks, like this,

Here comes fail # 2 of this project.  Always compare the depth of your board to your nail heads.  I realized this the hard way, AFTER putting little nail holes in my desk.  DIY FAIL!

Take 3, I refused to buy another board to mangle, since removing the nails is tough and mars the board a board a bit.  They make a special tool to remove them, I clearly am not buying one.  While in the garage trying to figure out how I was going to cut my board down with a chop saw, way wrong tool for the job, I spotted the pallet.

I figured I could make that work, if not, it was free, and I am no worse off then when I started. I cut three pieces to about 18" long.  I sanded and stained each board, they were a little worn and beat up, which I was ok with, I sanded enough to just knock off any potential splinters. 

I used some scrap wood to attach them together on the back side.  Like so .....

(see my failed attempt at pretty writing on the bottom board)

I then printed off an infinity symbol to use a template, my free hand version kept coming out lopsided and wonky looking.

Hammering in each nail is slightly tedious and I have more than one bruised nail to show for it.  I found that holding each tack with a pair of needle nose pliers saves on your fingers and also makes it MUCH easier to get the nails where you want them.  If you bend one, scrap it, they just don't work correctly after you straighten them out.  

I started at the center and worked down each arm a little bit at a time.

I left a gap where I planned to put our anniversary date.
 

I had ideas of burning the date into the wood or cutting the date into the wood.  As many fails as I had starting out, I decided good old fashion stamping would probably be safer, couldn't find stamps the right size or style, go figure, and went with foil stickers for the win!

I initially wanted to hand paint wording to the bottom, if you have ever seen my hand writing, you know why that was a bad idea.  Stenciling or stamping would work for this as well.  I just happened to find a vinyl decal that said exactly what I wanted as was a perfect size.

Not bad for some scraps in the garage.

Please excuse the poor photo, it was this or this would never get posted.