‘Show Love’ – wedding gift

My littlest brother got married not too long ago and I decided to make them something custom and really personalized. I’m a huge fan of personalized décor, so why not force it on everyone else, particularly my family ;)

I made this same sort of sign for my bedroom and just copied it for my bro & new sister-in-law, but of course I used their picture instead of ours!

My previous post about this “Show Love” quote goes into more detail about why I really like this William Shakespeare quote. I know everyone has their own thoughts & opinions about W.S., so maybe my brother thought it was weird when I handed it to him and he read it for the first time (I could tell by the look on his confused face). But as his older sister, I know better and he WILL like it (enter wicked step-sister laugh).

The sign in my room is just vinyl directly on the wall. We own our house and I know we will be here for a while yet. My brother, on the other hand, is still in college and will be moving many {many, many, and many more} times, I’m sure. I did. I didn’t know how to stay put when I was a college student. I was in a new place every year I went back after summer. Heck, I didn’t even stay at the same school longer than 2 years.

I digress.

I used some wood that Grant milled and went through the process of creating their picture. I used Power Point & Silhouette studio for this process. I took one of their engagement pictures, edited it down (like my other post describes in more detail) and traced their figures. It took a while, but it didn’t take as long as weeding!

I cut it out in vinyl to use as a stencil, so I had to weed all the little pieces of their picture (which was a P.A.I.N.). Then I placed in on the nicely sanded & routered board, stained it and finished it with a clear coat.

I love using stain on natural wood because you can still see the grain through it. I’m a huge fan of natural wood. I grew up working on projects with my dad in the garage and shop, so natural wood will always remind me of him. Stain on the wood usually makes the grain pop, which is another favorite of mine.

Someday my brother will appreciate this (if he doesn’t already).

Personalized Love Note home décor {wedding/anniversary gift}

My little brother recently got married and I decided to make them something really personalized. I snooped for some love notes they wrote each other while dating (okay, I asked him for them!). Something short & sweet. Really mushy sweet. These are what he sent me, perfect!

 

I started by importing them into the Silhouette Studio. Then I traced them and adjusted the layout, but only enough to fit them on an 8” x 8” board. I also used the “offset” function to make the letters a little thicker. I cut the love notes out of ’middle grey’ vinyl.

Then it was a matter of the boards for the signs. I cut 8” x 8” boards, sanded them, routered the edges, put keyholes in the back (for hanging) & painted them white. Once they were prepped and ready, I applied the vinyl. (There is also a third 8” x 8” block, reserved for a picture of the Bountiful temple in white vinyl with their anniversary date. My brother is still working on drawing the temple for me!)

I gave them to my newest sister-in-law at her bridal shower. They were a hit & unique to all the other gifts she received that night!

Seattle, Washington LDS temple wood cutout

I recently had a request for a Seattle, Washington LDS Temple wood cutout. So far I’ve only cut the Portland, Oregon and the Salt Lake, Utah LDS temple. Once the request was put in, my little brother, Scott, is the artist and drew this gorgeous picture of the temple.

Then I altered it just a tad so that I could cut it out of wood and still have everything attached. Turned out pretty awesome, if you ask me!

Request your own temple at Remembories etsy shop.

‘Show Love’ quote

I have to thank Deanna whose blog I was looking at when I found this quote on her side bar. I love it! I’m not much of a poetry/history fan, so I definitely had never heard this one before. But I must say, it is perfect for our marriage.

My love language is service and Grant’s is touch (read The 5 Love Languages). We both have to SHOW each other love in order for the other person to feel loved. Again, this quote is perfect for our marriage and is a really good reminder for us.

I designed the quote and layout in the Silhouette Studio and designed it around our kissy picture (By the way, sorry about the repeated kiss picture. Hopefully you don’t gag!)

First, we took a kissy picture. We actually took these pictures before I had even found the quote or decided on this project. We were taking pictures for another project I have in mind (which is going to be awesome)! This one just happened to be perfect for this quote. This picture was taken using the self-timer and a solid background.

Then, I removed the background so it was just us, nothing else in the picture.

I don’t have any of the fancy photo editing programs, so what I use is POWER POINT. It has a ‘remove background’ function (top left) under the format picture tab. I actually use this function a lot, particularly when I want to cut a picture with my Silhouette. Removing the background just makes it that much easier.

  

I saved that image as a picture and then imported it into the Silhouette Studio. It was easy to take that picture, trace it, and have the Silhouette cut it for me.

When it comes to vinyl, the hardest part for me is peeling (weeding) it. It either takes me way too long or I end up messing it up or ripping it or something to that effect. I managed to do it okay this time, but it still took way too long. Also, I need to remember to use a level rather than my eyeball to make things straight. I end up never getting things on the wall straight. So, don’t look too close!

I put it above out mirror in our bedroom, so I know at least I’ll be looking at it on a regular basis! Gotta remember to SHOW my love!

 

Vinyl details:
*font – Carpenter Script, 149.5 pt
*LOVE font - Mardian Demo, 261 pt
*vinyl – GreenStar Matte Black, 070M

Love Note Wall Art

Have you ever tried out the Engineering Prints at Staples? Grant posted about a print he did, but he knew all about engineering prints long before I did because he is an engineer. He uses them all the time. I heard a lot about them on different blogs and pins, so I finally tried them out. I decided to decorate our bedroom with some enlarged love notes that we wrote to each other while we were dating. I actually did this while Grant was out of town on a business trip. I hadn’t planned on doing it, but thought of it the day he was coming back, so I had to move fast (wanted it to be a surprise).

 

First I had to find the perfect love notes :) Which actually took a while because I had to sift through the thousands that Grant wrote me until I found the perfect one, and I had to search and search for any that I wrote him (he doesn’t keep things, I do). I found these two letters (pictured) then I scanned them and decided on the layout & crop that I wanted. I’m not a fan of straight on, boring stuff, and I had to get a good angle of all the cute-sie, lovey words we used.

 

 

I changed them into PDFs and took my flashdrive to Staples. It was done in a matter of minutes and although they didn’t turn out awesome (something was wrong with their machine, go figure), they turned out great for my project. I was going for a worn, old look, and the darker print of these engineering prints worked great.

I wanted to make the mushy stuff stand out, so I grabbed some of my kiddos paint and tried to highlight those particular words – “beautiful”, “eternity”, “best friend”, etc. – by painted a small outline around each letter.

Ok, now this is the part that I should have taken my time and used the little patience I have, but instead I just wanted to get it done because Grant was coming home later that night. Grant has lots of random pieces of scrap wood (I guess he does keep some things), so I grabbed a large piece of very thin MDF. I cut it on the table saw to the dimensions I wanted – about 24” by 30”.

Actually, this is the part that I should have used more patience. The gluing phase. I started with some spray glue and sprayed half of one board then layed the print down on it. So far so good. But then I went to spray some more glue and I got nothin. Either it was too cold, clogged, or it was empty or all of the above. Soooo, rather than pack both boys in the car and make a 15 minute trip into town just for some spray glue, I went with the next best alternative, Elmers.

Didn’t work out so well, but it kept the paper down and I got it finished. Let me just advise you to take your time, use the right glue and find a flat straight edge to scoot along the paper as you glue it down. Mine ended up being REALLY bumpy because of how the glue pulled at the print (it had nothing to do with my lack of patience and horrible application techniques).

And ta-da! I drilled some holes in the corners and used small nails to hang them up. Grant would have been proud of me because I actually used a level and tape measure to make sure they were straight and hung at the same level. Usually I just eyeball it!

Now our room has a little bit more of our “young love” in it again!

*This wall art was inspired by THIS

 

 

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