Family Plaques

I don't believe that I've ever posted about this project that I completed at my friend, Kristi's house. This was a delightful project that doesn't take very long, but the results are fab.

I made the F.A.M.I.L.Y plaques using long wood boards, Cosmo Cricket paper, decoupage glue, wood letters from Walmart, tacky glue, black acrylic paint, black ribbon and sandpaper.

Each plaque is about 1 inch thick and around 10x10. (These aren't exactly square.)

I know that these pictures aren't great, but I haven't put my whole shrine up yet in the new house so I can't redo it yet. I had this on the wall going up the stairs in the old house. It took a lot of room and I loved how I could look at 6 years of pictures at one time.

Here's a close-up of one of the letters. I didn't do anything to the paper to make it look distressed. That is all the beauty of the manufacturer.

Cut the boards. I didn't do this part so I have no suggestions. Although you can purchase already cut wood at craft stores. (It can be pretty expensive.)

Using a junky paintbrush, paint decoupage glue onto the front of the board. Adhere paper. Make sure that there aren't any air bubbles by using your fingers or some sort of rolling tool. If you don't feel comfortable with this, you can precut the paper to the right size. I did it both ways.

If necessary, trim paper using an exacto knife. And sand the edges of the board and the paper to make sure that everything is nicely adhered. Don't worry if you take off some of the paper, you can cover this up with paint. Clean up your sanding powder.

Brush more decoupage glue onto the top of the paper to seal it. I don't think this is totally necessary because another, more careful, friend skipped this step, but I thought that it gave my piece a finished look because my glue painting job was a bit messy and I had glue seeping out of the edges.

Paint your wooden letters and the edges of your boards. Make sure that you brush a little paint over the edges of the paper so it blends into the sides. You can see how I did that on my A above. Allow to dry.

Sand the sides of the letters so that they look distressed. Adhere letters to middle of boards using tacky glue. Dry. Adhere ribbon to back of boards using tacky glue too. Allow to dry.

I hope that you enjoyed this project!