Picture Plaque Tutorial

Three years ago, my grandfather passed away. And recently, my grandmother just moved out of the house that they bought while my mom was still in high school to move into an assistant living home near one of my aunts, so I wanted to do something special for her. Her birthday is this week so while my mom and all her sisters were going through my grandparent's house, getting ready to sell it, I asked her to grab me a couple pictures of my grandparents when they were young. She sent me this picture and I just loved it! So off to work I went! I wanted to make her something that she could easily hang somewhere and remember my grandfather and all the good times they shared in their 64 years (I think) of marriage. I've seen something similar to this throughout blogland but the pictures are on canvases. I decided to use a wood plaque instead.


How to:

Supplies:
-Wooden plaque
-Acrylic paint- I used cream
-Ribbon
-Mod Podge (forgot to include in picture)
-Stickers or you can cut out the letters
-Picture
-Printer

First, I scanned my picture into my computer and then printed it out on a regular sheet of printer paper as an 8x10.

Next, paint the wooden plaque the color of your choosing.

I then added ink to the edges of my plaque to give it a more aged look.

I place my large picture on the plaque and decided how I wanted to place it. I then just pressed around the edges of the plaque to crease the picture so I knew where to trim my picture. I trimmed off the excess and then decided to tear the edges instead of leaving them straight. I just tore a little at a time and place it periodically on the plaque until I liked what I had.

I also inked the edges of the picture to cover up any white that showed when I tore it.

Time to Mod Podge the picture to the plaque.

I then wanted to write something sweet on the picture so I chose the phrase "Forever and Always." I was originally going to use stickers but all the stickers I had were just a little too large so I just cut them out on my cricut and glued them down instead.

View from the top of it all glued down.

Everything is all Mod Podge and now has a little shine.

To make it easier for her to hang it I used a stapler to attach ribbon to the back. I then glued the ribbon down over the staples so they did not mess up the wall.

And here is the final result! I love how it came out!

I got a call from my grandmother yesterday after she received it and she said she LOVED it! She said she cried for about 30 mins after opening it as a flood of memories came rushing back to her. I asked her what the picture is from and she said it was from when my grandpa came home on leave from the Army during WWII. So that makes me love this picture even more!



There you have it! The project is pretty fast and easy. And the possibilities are endless. If you make one I would love for you to share it with me!

I will be linking up to these parties.

WAHOO!!

I am SO HAPPY!! Travis and I have been talking about getting new bedroom furniture for quite some time now and this weekend we FINALLY got it!
It arrived yesterday and I LOVE it but it is a BIG change! All we had in our room before was all my childhood furniture- a long dresser with mirror, our queen size bed and headboard, and a night stand with other little odds and ends, so we had a lot of room still. And now we got it ALL- the dresser with mirror, chest of drawers, bed with head and foot boards, and two night stands. It is A LOT in the room because it is pretty dark and the room isn't super large, so it is a big change every time I walk in there.

Travis is just THRILLED that he finally gets a dresser and night stand because I never gave up any room in the dresser before. Is that a bad wife? Not in my book-hehe! I also have a slight fear of if it will all fit into our next house because we won't be here long before we are off and moving again so I guess we'll have to see what happens when that time comes.

But here is our room before.

These pictures were taken right after we moved in, hence the boxes. We put up curtains shortly after this picture and then I eventually added stuff to the wall.


And here is our room now with our new furniture.

It all fit... barely. We pretty much had to put it in this arrangement because of all the doors and windows throughout the room. The bed and nightstands JUST fit on the wall they are on since there is the wall that juts into the room because of the stairs.


Here is our headboard. The foot board has the same panels on it.


Travis' new chest of drawers which he is thrilled about!


My new dresser.


And here is a farther shot of the bed and nightstands.



Since we have this new furniture, I am now itching to re-do the WHOLE room now. I have been having this urge for new curtains and bedspread for a while but now it is in full gear. Here are just a few things I would like to do.

-New curtains
-New comforter
-Move those wall sconces that look so itty bitty now that some things in the room has been rearranged.


-Paint our hampers a darker color since they stick out like a sore thumb among the dark furniture.
-Moved that picture.
-And get rid of that bench. Travis used it to store his t-shirts before having a dresser and our dear cat used it as a scratching post so all of the rope that was wrapped around it is gone and it looks bad! I guess we could try to paint it or something but I don't really want it in here any more!


Some of these changes will just have to wait for a little bit until we get some of this furniture paid off. But hopefully, I can slowly make changes and of course I will share what I do.

Happy Wednesday!


Linking to these parties and:
Serenity Now- Show Me the Progress Party

Tasty Tuesday: A Must Make Recipe

Dalmatian Cupcakes
For our third wedding anniversary, in January, my parents got us a stand mixer. YES!! And well... I still haven't used it! SAD, I KNOW!! But Travis deployed to Haiti shortly after receiving it, then we went on vacation when he got home, and then we moved so I have a good excuse for not baking!
Lately, Travis has been bugging me to do some baking and actually USE the mixer so I told him to pick something for me to make. He picked these DELICIOUS Dalmatian Cupcakes. The funny thing is, he found the recipe in a small Betty Crocker book I had so of course, all the ingredients were Betty Crocker so I STILL haven't used my mixer!! I didn't want to dirty it to just do a small bit of mixing! Haha! All well... these cupcakes are so good, I DO NOT CARE! Some day soon I'll use it!


But onto the recipe:
Prep Time: 10 mins
Start to Finish: 1 hr 15 mins
Makes: 24-30 cupcakes
Ingredients:
-6 oz. of cream cheese, softened
-1/3 cup sugar
-4 eggs-1 1/2 cups miniature or regular semisweet chocolate chips
-1 box Betty Crocker Supermoist Devil's Food cake mix
-1 1/3 cups water
-1/3 cup vegetable oil
-1 container Betty Crocker Rich and Creamy or Whipped vanilla frosting



How-to:

-Heat oven to 350F (325F for dark or nonstick pans). Place paper baking cups in each of 24 regular-size muffin cups.

-In medium bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, and 1 egg with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Stir in 1 cup of the chocolate chips. Set aside.

Must-Have Monday

I love bunting! It is just adorable. I have been wanting to make bunting in some form or another and just haven't gotten around to it. So today's Must-Have Monday is full of Bunting Beauties that I found on Etsy.

Enjoy!

1.) Happy Birthday Fabric Banner by Abigail's Hope Designs
2.) Cake Bunting Dolly by Kiki La Ru
3.) Set of 6 Congratulations Cards by Merry Blues Art
4.) Oilcloth Pennant Party Banners by Magpie and Cake
5.) Botanical and Graphic Patterned Bunting Banner by Fabric or Fiction

Fabulous Friday

I am very happy that it is Friday. Not sure why, but I just am so glad the weekend is here.

I just wanted to share some pictures that I took of some flowers that I bought yesterday. I have mentioned it before, but I am a HUGE flower lover and LOVE taking pictures of them. Well unfortunately, I have no good flowers outside to take pictures of so I had to go buy some. I used the blue Ball jars that I bought 2 weeks ago as my vases. I bought orange roses for my living room since I have the blue and orange theme going on in there, and then just a bunch with many different flowers for the kitchen. So here are just a few of the pictures I took yesterday when I got them home.

Have a good weekend everyone! Hope you stay cool!



Next week I'll be sharing a tutorial on how I used this awesome picture of my grandparents. :) And I have a YUMMY Tasty Tuesday recipe as well! Stay Tuned!

Mail Center Re-do

I'm a little late posting today. The day has just gotten away from me but I wanted to share a project that I finished up yesterday.

I got this mail center from my MIL, which means it was FREE! Gotta love that. At the time, I wasn't sure what to do with it or where to put it so there it sat in a closet for a year or more. We moved and after getting settled, I realized that I actually had a place for it. So my mind started spinning to figure out what I wanted to do to it. Travis wanted me to leave it as is but I knew I wanted to give it a punch of color.

The center piece, whatever it was at one time, was missing out of it so I decided I wanted to use cork to fill it (which what I am assuming was there). And at one time or another, I bought a fabric quarter that I loved so I decided I wanted to use that to cover the cork and make a memory board. Next all I had to do was decide what color to paint it. So I grabbed my fabric and off to Lowes and Wal-Mart I went. I bought a cream, a dark gray, and a teal color spray paint. I first was going to do the dark gray but once I got it all home decided on the teal.

So then the transformation began.

I first began by taking off all the hooks and other hardware. I decided to leave them as is. I don't know how old this thing is but I had the HARDEST time getting the screws out. They were awful and I actually had to leave a hook on because I couldn't budge the screws and did the same for the bracket that holds the little "mail" sign. So when it came time to paint, I just taped them off to protect them.

Then came sanding the finish off. I have no idea what it was but it would clog my sand paper within seconds. After that primed it and painted it Krylon's Bahama Sea.


While the paint was drying and in between coats, I worked on my cork/memory board.







I inserted the cork into the empty hole. Attached all the hardware back on, and then distressed the edges just slightly to add a little more.


All done! I hung it in our just inside our kitchen.

It is near our fridge so now all the invitations, save-the-dates, and other odds and ends that end up on the fridge can go on here. (We'll see how well it works for us. haha)

I love the way it came out. :)



Linking to these parties!

Tasty Tuesday

The hubby and I are off exploring Mammoth Caves today so this Tasty Tuesday is just a little different. I found these three yummy looking strawberry recipes from Kraft Foods. I thought with it being the middle of summer these would be fabulous treats. One recipe is great for kids, one for adults and the last for the whole family to enjoy. Click on the name of each picture to take you to Kraft's website for the recipe.


For the Kids:
Triple Strawberry No-Drip Pops


For the Family:
Individual Strawberry Cups


And for the Adults:
Icy Strawberry Kiwi-tini
Totally want to try these out- Yum!


Enjoy!


I'll be back tomorrow with a fun redo that I did, well if I can finally finish it without something else messing up! I am THIS close to being done.