Cheap & Easy Wood Plaque

May 19, 2009 by Kara | 1 Comment

I found this wonderful idea over at Joy's blog. I'll admit right up front that I got a little excited while I was making it and I forgot to take pictures. Joy project is a little different then mine, so you can check it out if you are interested. Just be warned though, she has so many amazing ideas that you will be there for awhile!

I started by purchasing one of these:
I bought it using a coupon at my local craft store, so it was $1.50.

I was going to buy a wood plaque to attach it to, but while I was cleaning out my garage, I found some scrap wood. Instead of throwing it in the trash, I decided I would use it instead.I cut it down to size and sanded it with my palm sander.

Next I spray painted the wood and the letter with a couple coats of black spray paint. I sanded the edges of the letter so it would have a nice distressed look.

I didn't have any patterned paper in my stash that I thought would work, so I decided to make my own. Yep, I made pattered paper right on my very own computer. If you want to try it, here are the instructions. All I did was type out the words "Loads of Love" using the Scriptina font. I then copied and pasted it over and over again till it filled the whole page. (I made sure to stagger the words so they weren't in columns.) Then I just printed it out on a piece of white cardstock and cut it down to size.

I used brown ink on all the edges of the paper, and even rubbed some randomly in the middle for an antique look.

I have an ink jet printer, and I knew the mod podge would smear the ink, so I sealed the paper first. I used this:I wanted to make sure it didn't smear, so I sprayed on like 7 coats. I know, I'm a crazy freak.

Then I attached the paper to the board with mod podge. I was still a little paranoid that it would smear, so for the first coat I used a big paint brush tried not to brush over any of my strokes. I let it dry, then did another coat just to make sure it was all sealed.

Then I tied a ribbon around the "L" and attached it to my board with Fabritac glue.

Here is the finished product:

Not to shabby for a $2 project, is it? I do however, need to buy a better stand for it. I didn't have one that fits, so as soon as they go on sale, I'll pick one up.