Craft Fun

The other day, I went to Enrichment. It hardly happens. I think that was the third time in all the years I've been going to Relief Society that I've gone to Enrichment. Yeah, I'm not very good about it. Anyways, I went because I liked the activity we were going to do and I had to pay for it, so I kinda had to go. We learned how to make the plaques with sayings on them. They had different ones we could do that we had to choose before hand. I did 3 small ones that say "Live Laugh Love" each word being on a different board. I was talking to Mandy about it and she said that I should post how to do it, so here it goes.

Really you could use any board. The ones I have are just three 2x4s. I'm sure you can probably buy blank plaques at a craft store. I'm planning on checking them out because now I'm obsessed. I'll let you know if I find a store that carries them. Anyways, now comes the fun part: painting the board. You can probably use any paint that you want, but we used the craft paint that comes in the small bottles. Less of a mess. It takes about 15-20 minutes to dry, but if you're doing a second coat you can probably just wait 10 minutes. (Helpful suggestion: If you mix paints to get the right shade, make sure you mix enough...it's hard to get the same shade again.)

If you want, after the paint dries, you can take sand paper and lightly sand the edges it make it look more worn. I decided against it, but it's an option.

So now, you get to put on the lettering. We used vinyl, which I'm not sure how they did except I guess vinyl cutters exist that are hooked up to the computer to be able to choose font size, color, and everything. It was basically like a sticker in between a laminate paper, so we just peeled off the backing and stuck it to the board. Then we rubbed the lettering to make sure it stuck than peeled off the paper leaving the vinyl. Sorry I'm not more help with this step. For those of you with a Kinko's nearby, they might be able to do it. By the way, you can do two layers of vinyl. Like if you wanted your family name and then "Established in ...." under that. I think it's just a matter of deciding what you want on top of what.

Anyways, after putting on the lettering, putting on a glossy coat of spray paint helps everything look less homemade. It also helps things to stay put. It's probably the easiest step because you just spray and leave it to dry. I'd recommend two coats for an extra gloss. It only takes about 5-10 minutes to dry. Might take longer if you're in humidity.

And there you have it! A takes a little bit of time, but definitely cute and fun. (If you don't want to do it yourself, I'm thinking of making this a hobby so I just might do it for you.) To show you what mine looked like after I was done, here's a picture (by the way, the boards are all separate...this is just how I stacked them):