Wood initial plaque and the best laid plans....

I know there is an old saying about the best laid plans.. well maybe that is Murphy's Law.  This past weekend I had such great plans, decorating for St. Patrick's Day, painting my bedroom, a craft and some good food. Yeah none of that happened, instead this is what my house looks like right now.

Not many blogger would be brave enough to show you this but I think this is what blogging is all about.  Obviously I don't have the perfect home and it isn't clean all the time either.  Now let me explain....
I finally finished taking down the rest of the wallpaper boarder in the kitchen.  Remember the wallpaper?

Because I put wallpaper sizing on the walls before I papered it was really easy to get off with a water bottle and a putty knife.  If the front came off and left the backing I just used more water and it came off in sheets.  No holes in the walls, no sanding or scraping or hard work.  BUT (and this is a big BUT) - after being up for 10 years or so the wall underneath the wallpaper was a different color.  I think that I am so clean but let me tell you that you could still see where the wallpaper was because it was clean and an entirely different color than the rest of the walls.  I was astonished!  So I did what every woman would do, I started cleaning the walls with soap and water then a Magic Eraser (they are AWESOME if you've never used one).  The walls were still different colors.  My husband was watching me and finally said, "Let's just paint it.  You've been wanting to so lets just do it." 

Now if you remember the first couple lines of this post, I had plans for this weekend - paint our bedroom, so my response was, "You'll do anything to get out of painting our bedroom won't you?"  He just smiled and said, "yeah and I'll probably regret this anyway but lets do it."

So my plan to paint our bedroom, get new bedding, decorate for St. Patrick's Day, do a craft and cook some crockpot pork went right out the window.  Gone, gone, gone!  Because once you paint the walls the ugly white cabinets look really bad, so we'll have to paint those too right... Yep.  And while we're at it lets put door knobs on the doors finally and get hardware period... OK!  Twist my arm!

Now we don't want to do too much in the kitchen as it is still on our list of gut job renovations but at least I'll have nice painted cabinets with knobs and nice walls - eventually!  Call me excited. 

So today I'll be sharing a craft I did with some wood I bought at Michael's from the weekend of Valentine's Day.  Now you thought you would get to see some kitchen stuff right... nooooo, sorry!  (but keep coming back, it will be here soon!).

This is an easy craft, the hardest part was the painting but isn't it always! 
I bought some wood scrollwork, wood letters and wood plaques at Michael's the other day as I was inspired by their Pintrest party. 
Sorry this is upside down.. I can't seem to turn it even with my camera. But you can see the end result is pretty nice! 

To make one of these you will need:
Wood plaque
Wood scroll work
Wood letter
Paint of your choice
Ribbon of your choice
2 Painting sponges and or brushes (you will need the brush if you paint the scroll work)
Decoupage medium
Scrapbook paper of your choice
Paper plates - at least 2
Stapler
Pencil
Scissors
Craft glue that will dry clear

You want to make sure it all matches color wise.    I did two, one for each daughter.  They both like different colors so both plaques look very different.

First things first - If you are going to paint the scroll piece - BEWARE - it took a lot of time.  A LOT!  It is very time consuming to get in all the grooves on the scroll.  I use paper plates as a paint holder.  I just pour the paint on the paper plates and throw them away when I am done. 

 For these I used white.  That is what my one daughter wanted.

While that is drying you can paint your plaque part.  Make sure you get the sides! 

Now for the letter.  I picked out scrapbook paper that was color coordinated to the plaque pieces.  One daughter loves black and white while the other one just loves bright colors. 

 

Step 1 for the letter - take your wood letter and your scrapbook paper.

 

 Step 2 - turn your scrapbook paper to the over so you have the back of the paper facing up. Now flip your wooden letter backwards and trace it out. 

 Step 3 - Cut our your traced image.

Step 4 - Using your other paper plate, pour out the decoupage medium.  If you haven't already flip your wood letter to face the correct way.  Now, using another sponge - cover your wood letter with decoupage (this will act like glue)

Step 5 - Carefully place the cut out scrapbook letter over the wood letter, then carefully spread more decoupage over the front of the letter - this will dry clear.  Be careful, you want the scrapbook letter to sit over the wooden one.  Also decoupage medium can make thinner paper tear and buckle. 

Now sit the letter aside to dry.

 

Once your plaque is completely dry flip it over.  With your ribbon you will make a loop and staple it to the back of the plaque. I used heavy duty staples but you can use regular, the piece is light and can take the regular staples.  As you can see I did fold over the ribbon for a stronger hold. 

Turn the piece back over.

Once your scroll work is completely dry you can glue it to your plaque using the craft glue.  Again make sure the craft glue says it dries clear....

I'd let this start to dry a bit.  Your scrapbook covered letter should be dry now as well.  Using the same craft glue, glue the letter on top the scroll work piece and you are done!  I put the glue on the back of the letter then put the letter on the piece.

Tip - let this all dry sitting flat for at least 30 minutes before you hang it.  

 You can see the glue on the top one, still wet. 

 

 



(Again, sorry it is upside down!).  Anyway - pretty cute huh!  I think so and my girls love them.  I wrote my name and the date on the back so they'd know when it was made. 

A nice thing about this craft is that is was pretty easy - again the most difficult part was painting all that scroll work white. 

This craft is versatile - you could do it for any occasion.  You could do a monogram for a wedding shower gift.  You could use smaller wood letters and write a baby's name or a boy or girls name and give it as a gift for a birthday or baby shower. 

Instead of a wood plaque you could use canvas and glue it all down then paint it all one color.  OR, you could paint the wood different colors first then glue it to the canvas.  The creativity is endless! 

 

I got the wood letters and scroll at Michael's.  I got 1 of the wood plaques at Hobby Lobby and one at Michael's.  I got the paint at Hobby Lobby.  The scrapbook paper is from achievers. The glue I used is Martha Stewarts craft glue that dries clear and I got that at Michaels as well as the ribbon.  The paint brush and sponges I used to paint I got at Hobby Lobby as well as the decoupage.  The paper plates, Walmart.  We had the stapler, scissors and pencil. 

 

I hope you try this craft.  If you'd like to and need help, you can write me on Facebook -

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dragonflies-and-Thistles/491393717621010

Or you can email me at - dragonfliesandthistles@gmail.com or you can comment here on the blog. 

So I normally post Monday, Wednesday and Friday but it looks like this week it will just be Tuesday and Thursday.  I'll try to have a post for Friday but no promises as we've got to get the kitchen painted and back together ASAP! 

Happy Crafting!

Victoria