Personalized Dog Crate Name Tag

Being a pet owner is great! I have 3 dogs currently there's Jada, Jellybean and Sandy each with their own personality and individuality. As many dog owners we have our dogs crate trained and each dog knows which crates is theirs. I wanted to make a way to say which create was theirs so I thought having their own name plate on them would work best.

Supplies

Wood

Paper

Temporary spray glue

Sand paper

Painters tape

Spray paint

Pencil

Craft paints

Black marker

Eye hooks

Binder clips

Tools

Scroll saw

Electric hand sander

Drill

I started the project with a piece of free wood I got from work that they were going to throw away it was about 6in x 3ft x 3/4in I only wound up using about a foot and a half of it for 4 of these so depending how many you want to make and how big you choose to make them the amount you use could differ

For the template i just did a google search for dog bone outline and put it in microsoft word and just kind of guessed what size would work good just keep in mind how ling your dogs name is and that its big enough to fit on the final bone for me about 3 fit on the paper which worked for me i only have 3 dogs i also decided to make an extra for my parents dog do i wouldn't be left with a random piece of wood once i made sure they fit nicely on the board i took them out side to glue on the templates

the glue i used is a glue often for fabric patterns it works really good for how we are going to be doing with it the glue i used comes off really easy when your done which is why id recommend it but its not required if you cant find a temporary glue i would imagine a glue stick or double sided tape would work too or even cutting out a bone in the paper and trace it on the wood

the scroll saw is what i used to cut out the bones you could also use a jigsaw or even a coupling saw would work too but i like the scroll saw its easier to keep up with the template for me

*DISCLAIMER* i cant say im an expert at the scroll saw if this is your first time please take the time to be safe and research best practices to operate the machine also remember to use proper ppe

since my board was 3ft long the first thing i did was cut the bones to their own individual boards

when cutting out the templates take your time for my template the line was pretty thick so in order to keep them all the same i had commit to the inside of the line of the template or the outside of the line again take your time making sure to keep your eyes on the blade and where your hands are at all times if you get stuck you can always turn off the machine and back track in the cut to get out and come in a different way

if you make some mistakes thats ok we can fix them in the next step if not they will add personal flair to them

easiest would be to remove the template now wither peel it off if you can or use a sander or sand paper to remove it the best you can

for sanding i used a random orbital sander that made the work allot easier on me and really saved some time

each of the nubs of the bones you may need to shape better due to mis cuts or perhaps the saw missed a spot or took too much with the sander on just move the bone to round up the nubs also at this time sand the faces of the bones so everything is smooth and fancy anything the sander wont fit in just use regular sandpaper

this is probably the last time you will be able to sand without causing yourself extra work

i painted the bones with spray paint if you would rather use brush on paint you can im just going to show spray paint you can also choose other colors or keep it the wood color whatever you want yours to look but again this is just how i did them

all the painting i did i did 2 coats with proper drying time between coats

first i spray painted the fronts with a flat white spray paint this will be where the names are going so make sure you have a good surface to work with (if you get on the edges that doesn't matter it will be covered anyway}

after giving enough time for the white to dry i took some painters tape and put it over the face i just painted making sure it was on there good and smooth then using my dogs favorite color i spray painted the rest of the bone ( i used satin for this part the white will get satin polly at the end so everything matches}

once everything is dry peel off the tape and you should have a clean white face ready for names ( if theres a little of the color then bled through thats fine we can cover it later on )

Im going to come clean here when starting this project i had a plan to use a method to print and transfer text with a printer for the names but that didnt work so i had to step outside my comfort zone and paint the names on do keep in mind dont be afraid to step out of your comfort zone when you need to its not all that bad {DISCLAIMER: if not in your comfort zone is something like using a plasma cutter or using a chainsaw probably get some help for that but painting is mostly harmless)

so for the names i decided to do a poor mans graphite transfer i went and printed out my dogs names in a font i felt suited them Sandy got a nice script font Jellybean got a bold font (which happened to be called unicorn her favorite) Jada got a simple font since she's not to complicated very easy going and my parents dog got the i love Lucy font because her names Lucy

once printed out i held the bone behind the paper to make sure it be a good fit on the bone and i cut out the name once it looked good making sure to leave enough space on the ends to tape the paper on

before taping it on take a pencil and scribble all over the back of the paper where the word is just get it good and covered on the back

being careful not to rub the pencil align the name where you want it and tape it to the bone

once its taped on trace over the letters with the pencil and go over all the letters being sure to get all the closed in spots and loops like in the a's and o's

once everything thing is traced over peel up one side of tape and look at the name make sure its how you want it and you got everything in order if something is too light you can either re apply the tape and try again tracing over the spot again or just trace over the light spot directly on the wood remember its pencil if you make a mistake erasers are a thing

painting is not my strong point i repeat painting is not my strong point take your time and keep in the lines

i used acrylic paint for the names you can use whatever kind you want paint pens i d imagine would work well for it i just didn't have any

take your time try to stay in the lines if you go out of the lines you can go over the whoops with white paint id also use this time to clean up the white pace if any of the color paint pled over from painting the bone

after i thought i was done painting my wife (much better at painting than i am) came and took away the bones for about 2 hours and they came back with the letters outlined and a much better paint job she used a mix of sharpie and some paint markers to outline them

DISCLAIMER: my wife is amazing and the work she put in on the names made them fantastic i cant thank her enough

after the paint and borders were dry i took them back outside to put on a final 2 coats of polly to protect the names we just put so much work on

once its all dry i took the bones to the crates they would be going to i lined them up to the bars they would be going to and put 2 little dots where i wanted them to hang

drilling in make sure to use a drill bit that is slightly smaller than the eye hooks you have so the screw has something to bite into the eyebolts should be easy enough to screw in by hand but plyers should make the job a little easier to get them in

in the eye hooks i used what i think are called binder clips i have a bunch of them so i dont know what they are called but you could use key rings or rope other small hooks would work too however you want to hang it

all you need to do now is hang them up for a snazzy new dog crate décor Jada Jellybean and Sandy like them allot Lucy is still on vacation so I haven't heard her thoughts yet but I'm happy with how it came out

DISCLAIMER : the dogs are in the crates for the pictures only i assure you they have plenty of time out of their crates either playing outside or hanging out with us they are really only in the crates if they want to be or if we feed them or aren't home and when they sleep at night with the exception of Jada she would live in her crate if we let her even with the door open she sleeps in it all day

i love how these came out gives the crates individuality for the dogs id also think it be really cool if you do like agility with your dog or something that your dog would compete in that between matches they would need to be put up in crates I've also been told these could work for other animals perhaps with other shapes like supposedly cats might like fish and it could go on a cat tree but again I'm not a catologist this is something foreign to me

anyway i hope you enjoy my instructable and if you decide to make it i hope you enjoy the fun in making it I know i did