of Baby Sprinkles and Alphabet Projects (the Wooden &)

Excitingly, my family will be adding another lady to our ranks this July when my sister Jenny is due. In order to prepare for this little fashionista, my sister Mandy and I devised a way to include extended family and friends in adding a little something just for her to their existing nursery. Basically, I found a pin on Pinterest and Mandy sprang into action with the plan. This is typically how our projects work...then it is up to me to do the nitty gritty crafting. My job this time was also to find examples for her to send around with the email and there is no shortage of DIY tutorials floating around to choose from. I found this one and knew that whatever letter I got it would be my inspiration.

While Ronnie and I were out one day specifically to find an & (there is also no shortage of willing volunteers with regard to this project), we stumbled upon a really cool patinaed copper flower and it happened to look great with the & I chose. I also found some really cool pearl beads on eBay and I knew I had just what I needed to add my own stamp to the inspiration piece. Mandy and I conveniently schemed to have all the letters sent to where we had our baby sprinkle. Just close family was invited since its Jenny's second baby girl but I really felt like because the letters were there more people took part in the fun! It was definitely a wonderful way to include everyone in the action.

Today's Cast of Characters:

Totally easy DIY today with all sorts of fun! It was really easy to dredge up what I needed from Michaels and eBay so as long as you have access to those fear not! I got the pearls from eBay and the wooden & and flower from Michaels; I had the spray paint I used lying around from another craft project. I'm not convinced it was necessary but it does add a nice bit of appeal to some of the naked areas. I'd say go for it.

What to Do:

Be proud friends, I remembered process shots during this project. It is really fun to do things like this and actually prove that I did it.

First make sure there is no lingering dust on your letter. You can do this with a wooden, mdf, or even cardboard letter and it will still turn out great. Mandy imposed a size restriction on our letters (no bigger than 4 inches) but & don't come in 4 inch size so I marched to the beat of my own drum a little on this.

Spray your letter until it is evenly coated with your paint. I used two coats on this little baby & and I'm sure it would need at least that if it was larger.

After the paint dries, get to work placing your embellishments. Because I had a specific idea about where I wanted my large flower, I glued that down first. Then I just kind of mish mashed around it with the pearls until they were looking good and the wood was pretty covered.

Once your project is completely dry you can add a hanging mechanism or leave it alone depending on your final plans.

Here is a quick shot of my & among the other spectacular creations made by family and friends. Jenny and her husband Pat are currently deciding on where and how they would like this glorious alphabet displayed!

of Creating Fun Family Plaques

I'll apologize right now for the lack of process shots regarding this project. Sometimes while I'm doing craft project I kind of space out and forget that I want to post them later. This discouraging thought is totally made up for by the fact that these little babies turned out beautiful. It all started when I stumbled across this post and decided it would be perfect for my family members for Christmas given a few tweaks. My sister Mandy aka my crafting benefactor agreed and so we set to work getting all of the necessary supplies. I basically followed the same directions as the above post but switched a few things up to make them uniquely ours. We ended up making like 10 of these for various family members and the results are beautiful. Mandy was in charge of choosing the pictures we used and I was in charge of the rest. She's much better at choosing those than I am and I happen to be better with general crafts.

If you are reading this and are a family member, we probably have yours in some state of completeness at my parents house. Sadly we kind of forgot about the pictures until we had already gone through most of the craft and it was time for Mandy to go home. It may be more of an Easter gift at this point.

Today's Cast of Characters:

Wood stain is kind of the star of the show today with it creating whatever mood you like. I choose to use Early American because that's what the post said and I like the rustic look but you can make these to match any sort of decor. I think it would look good with light or dark wood stain as well. You will also need some old tee shirts, some hot glue, and wood. It can be scrap or pallette wood too but we got ours from home depot and had them cut it into 15 inch sections to help us on our way. You also need to get some binder clips, furniture nails and embellishments. My mom has a giant collection of old buttons so it was pretty easy to choose some. Also, the above post mentions printing out the graphic on white card stock so that is what we did. I'm sure it would be fine if you mod podged a regular piece of computer paper too but it would add an extra step.

What to Do:

First sand and stain your wood. Pretty simple when you do it right. My grandfather used his planer and my sisters Mandy and Jenny and I used bunched up old t shirts and rubbed on the stain. We then let it dry.

While I was back at work the Monday before Christmas, my brother in law Larry and my Papa created a way to hold up the plaques. Papa used old wire from his parent's old studio. I think that added something even more family esque to the proceedings.

Next print and cut out your signs. I used similar font choices as the tutorial above but I made the sign say something a little more gender neutral. Our plan is to eventually find an old and new picture of each family we are giving the plaques to. I felt like the slogan I chose kind of goes with this theme If you already have these, print and cut them out too.

Its time to get to crafting! Use the furniture tacks to nail on the sign. After doing this I probably would recommend mod podging it because the paper does some crazy stuff. After the mod podge is dry then add your furniture tacks.

Next hot glue on the embellishments to your binder clips. Let them dry and then hot glue them on to your plaque. I used two per plaque because I wanted to be able to have two 4x6 pictures but if you dont mind a little randomness feel free to add as many clips as you want.

Our next step is sadly not complete for me yet. Mandy and I are working on finding the pics so I will update when that is finished. But for now, if you have your pictures add them to the clips and your plaque is ready to share or enjoy!