Initial Plaques

I have the entire week off from work (which I am sooo enjoying) and my desire to be creative has awakened. I absolutely love the Initials everywhere for sale to hang on a wall or sit on a special shelf. The other day I happened upon a blog detailing how to create such a cute little initial plaque. Today, Mom and I hit the town, went to Hobby Lobby and shopped 'til we dropped. It's New Year's Eve and I'm sitting at home with the Hubby making plaques and watching Seinfeld reruns...my kind of night actually. Well, here was my starting point for my plaques.

The items you will need are a wooden initial, a decorative unfinished wood plaque or a plaque you pick up at a thrift store that can be repurposed, scrapbooking paper, glue, paint, sandpaper and decorations if desired.

Step One - Sand your boards if necessary.

Step Two - Paint your plaque and your initial in a color(s) to coordinate with the paper you have chosen.

Step Three - Thinly paint on mod podge or glue on the face of the plaque and center your piece of scrapbook paper.

Step Four - After smoothing out any wrinkles in the paper, firmly rub the edges with sand paper. The sandpaper against the edge of the plaque will crease and cut the paper. Then, gently remove the edges.

Step Five - Dry brush the edges of the paper with paint.

Step Six - Lightly brush mod podge or glue over papered surface.
Step Seven - Hot glue your initial to the face of the plaque.

Step Eight - Coat initial with mod podge. Spray a clear coat over plaque.

Step Nine- Attach with a glue gun any bling you desire!

There you've got it!

This one was made for my Sis, Karen. Her nickname is K2 at the office because there are two Karens in the same department. She needed a little pick-me-up this evening so I hurried and finished it and e-mailed her a picture of what would be arriving on her doorstep in a few days.

This one was made for my kitchen or bath. I love red & black and have it throughout our home. I also love a little western theme - I AM A TEXAS GAL after all. It has a silver cowboy hat on the upper corner and a silver pair of boots on the bottom corner.

I've got three more plaques and a door hanger under way. This is such fun and a great stress relief! I used to do a lot of crafts, wreaths, paint, etc., but the stresses of life have gotten in the way. I think it's time my creative spirit shines through somewhere besides in the kitchen! Hope you give this a try!

Creative Juices Flowing

This day began as a hectic Saturday with Mom and I out and about with the hustling, bustling Christmas Shoppers. We set out to find the perfect Christmas ornaments for our ornament exchange. Rattled nerves, empty hands and two hours later, we had had enough. There wasn't an ornament out there calling my name that was worth fighting those crowds. So we decided to wander on over to Cracker Barrell for a relaxing lunch and a stroll through the country store. Aw, we should have began our journey here. We had a wonderful country lunch and found the perfect most darling ornaments ever! I want to keep them ALL! But I won't, I'll be good and put them in the ornament exchange. Maybe! We were headed home when I asked Mom if she would like to whip into GW (Goodwill). I have often found some hidden treasures there for decorating if you know how to look past its current state and see what it can become with a little creativity, a little bit of ribbons, paint, glue and glitter and make a wonderful creation. Well, we hit the jackpot. I found the cutest little tabletop Christmas tree with a huge tree trunk base with the Garden Ridge tag still attached and it was a fair price of $3.00. BUT get this...it was half off so I snagged it for the grand price of $1.50! Yahoo! I knew where she was going, right in the center of my dining room table. She is a work in process and I will be posting the pics of her redo shortly.

I saw recently through the different blogging world Christmas Open Houses some plaques that were made with a little spray paint, glue, glitter and presto a beautiful creation. Well, that's when my search began and why I stepped foot into the not so pleasant smelling GW, wood plaques calling my name, wood plaques waiting to be beautiful Christmas creations, and Christmas trees waiting to be decked out. Well, I found two plaques that were pefect & we were so excited. I wasn't at home to take before pictures because we went straight to Mom's and spread everything out on the table, raided her craft closet for beads, glitter, paint and ribbon and the notions started flying. After a few swipes with the paintbrush, a little use of the glue gun, some glitter and trim later and feast your eyes on our divalicious little Christmas creations...

Guess how much those two gorgeous little plaques set me back! Just guess! Fifty Cents each, yep, fifty cents!

I also left with a sad little wooden Christmas tree with a terrible paint job and polkadots that was screaming to me "Make Me Beautiful!" I was up to the challenge. A few more strokes of the paintbrush, a broken pearl necklace for Christmas balls, leftover gold ribbon, a few buttons, some glitter, repurposed Santa and HoHo buttons & a dab of fiberfill later & isn't she the cutest little tree?!!!

And my sweet little Christmas tree cost fifty cents as well! I love it when a plan comes together!
My little Christmas tree makeover will be posted tomorrow after I have had my way with her! Until then, Merry Christmas & Happy Creating! It's good for the soul!