In the Garden Plaque!

Hi Crafty Friends!

I have a plaque I made to share today.

Entering in these challenges:

Allsorts - #601 Anything But a Card

A Bit More Time to Craft - #129 AAG

A Gem of a Challenge - #25 AAG

Aud Sentiment - #265 AG

Catch The Bug - AG

CRAFT - #579 Christmas Present

Crafty Sentiments - AG

Cute Card Thursday - #663 AG

Li'l Patch of Crafty Friends - #147 AAG

Penny's - #485 AAG

Polkadoodles - #49 AAG

QKR Stampede - #409 AAG

Tuesday Throwdown - #471 AG/Color of Love

 

 Wow! I was pleasantly surprized at all the challenges that accepted craft items other than cards. I usually don't make anything else but cards, except every once in a while I'll find a craft project I want to try.

Like this plaque I made for my daughter-in-law for Christmas. She had a similar one she wanted on Etsy that was going for $30.00. (choke!) So I thought, I can do this!  So I did! (I may have found a new source of income!)

I went to Michael's and found an unfinished, pine plaque, 8 x 10". 

I already had some Americana, white, acrylic paints and gave it a couple of coats, letting it completely dry in between each coat. 

It was a little rough, so I took a nail file block and smoothed it down a bit. 

Then I did a search and found a free copy of the hymn "In the Garden"  and printed it out and cut it down to fit.

Then I marked on the plaque where the print would go and took some Mod Podge and put a coat of it right where the print would be so the paper would adhere to the plaque and hopefully not buckle or bubble when the top coat was applied, (Worked like a charm!)

Then I applied a top coat of Mod Podge over the entire top surface. There was a couple of places that started to bubble, but I was able to press it down with my finger and go over it with more Mod Podge. Came out really nice!

While it was drying, I hooked up my Silhouette to my laptop and found some bouncy lettering I got from the Silhouette store and cut out the letters from some black vinyl I had from my Cricut stash and eye-balled them and stuck them on the front.

Then to make it look distressed and weathered, I took a rasp and filed the edges down a bit and took my E 73 (taupe) and N 3 (gray)copics, and went over where I rasped.  

I remember seeing some metal, sawtooth hardware in my husband's misc. stash in the garage, that I centered on the back and nailed it in with some tiny nails so she could hang it on the wall. And voila!

 That's all for now, hope you enjoyed stoppin' by!

Thanks to all the challengers above for lettin' me play along.

Blessings!

Pam D