Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Happy Birthday, Megan!

Remember the growth ruler that I made for Nicole's little girl, Allison? Well, Alli's aunt is also one of my best friends, Megan, thought it was pretty cute and decided that she wanted a wall decoration of her own. It's about time that I made her something and what a better time then when she's moving into a new apartment that needs decorating! 


She posted this picture on my Facebook a few weeks ago, making her official crafting request. I was way excited to have something to make for someone. And also excited that I could make something that I didn't have to worry about finding wall space for! Hah!



After making Alli's growth ruler, I knew this would be a fun and easy craft to make. I used the same kind of pine board for this project that I used for Alli's. While the board in the picture is black, Megan wanted me to create a dark navy/very dark teal color to match her living room's accent color. I found the perfect color Behr paint, "Velvet Evening" that is navy blue with just a touch of green to it. I love it and it's going to look really good with the off-white/bone color or the adhesive lettering.

I purchased all of my supplies for the project at Home Depot. The project was pretty cheap and I'm also going to have a large piece of pine board and navy blue paint leftover for future crafts. 

My shopping list consisted of...
pine board, 4 feet long x 11 inches wide [$8.38]
Behr paint sample in "Velvet Evening" [$2.94]
trim painting kit [$1.97]
sand paper block [$3.97]
adhesive lettering [whole roll costs $6.99]


Tools needed... 
Cricut machine. Thankfully, my mother has one and she kindly helps me use it every time... it has way too many buttons for me to get a hang of!

Also, when you buy your wood, ask an employee at Home Depot to cut it for you if you don't have a way to do so at home. I definitely don't have any heavy duty wood cutting tools, so I always ask for help when I buy wood/pegboard. For this project, I asked them to cut a 16" piece. The final piece that I painted was 16"x11". 

Easy steps...


Start by sanding down the edges of the board. There shouldn't be any sharp edges when you're finished. Use your judgement on how much to sand, the more you sand the rounder the edges will be.
After sanding the edges, make sure to thoroughly sand the side of the board that you'll be painting. When you're done it should be really smooth. The smoother your board is, the better it will look after the paint job.

Then, break out your paint and roller brush and paint on two layers. Make sure to allow the board plenty of time to dry completely between each coat. Unless you're painting outside, make sure that you put something beneath the board you're painting- I used a trash bag. 

I love how the color turned out on mine after painting!


Cut out adhesive letters. I did the exact lettering that was on the board that Megan found on Pinterest. I cut out the words "Please excuse the mess....... we live here" (with 7 dots).

My mom always helps with the cutting of the adhesive letters. The Crucit machine has too many buttons and I don't use it often enough to have learned what they all do. You can buy a roll of adhesive vinyl to create stickers at Michaels or Hobby Lobby for about $7. My mom has a bunch of different Cricut cartridges so I had a log of fonts to choose from. I chose a relatively simple font, like the one in the picture. 

(P.S.- My mom is awesome because she took some time out of Mother's Day to help me with my craft. I love that woman!)


First she programs what she wants the Cricut machine to cut, then the machine cuts it all out perfectly. I love how the font we chose turned out on the dark, painted wood. 


These are the final cut out letters. My mom programmed it to cut all of the tall letters first, followed by the shorter letters, like the e's and s's. 


Apply lettering to painted board. Make sure to press them down really well, especially around the edges. If you don't make sure they're stuck down really well they may peel up. 


Ta-da! Finished product ended up looking great! 

I gave it to Megan for her 23rd birthday and now I can't wait to see it hung up in her new apartment!
Happy Birthday, Megan! :) 

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