I love the month of February, because I’m a completely hopeless romantic and love Valentine's Day! When I started to think about a craft I could do this month in honor of all things love, this came to mind and I hope you enjoy it!
I have been trying to find the perfect place to hang this adorable sign I found at Hobby Lobby:
I then came across someone putting together a series of pictures that each took on a part of the popular rhyme, “First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes a baby in a baby carriage”. I immediately knew what I wanted to do! I searched through my pictures and found one for each “phase” of the rhyme, an engagement picture, a picture from our 5th Anniversary wedding shoot, and lastly a maternity picture of me with my husband.
I didn’t want to just hang them in frames so I saw an idea that I made into my own. First, I must confess that I’m obsessed with any project involving modge podge … this being one of them!
I told my husband about the project and he decided to help with the first part so that I wouldn’t hurt myself in my 9 month pregnant state ;) I wanted 3 big blocks of wood cut from of a piece of lumber (big enough to hold an 8 x 10 photo), paint them black and then distress them. You certainly don’t have to do what I did and go purchase wood at the hardware store and cut it to size.
Hobby Lobby has some great wood boards that are lighter and will still fit an 8 x 10 photo.
Here are a couple pictures of one that I purchased:
Here we go:
First, he cut the wood board to size and sanded down the rough edges
Next, in order to hang the boards with ribbon,
he drilled a hole diagonally from the top to the side:
We then painted them black and left them overnight to dry.
*** Side Note: If you use the boards from Hobby Lobby, you can simply get a handheld staple gun or use hot glue to attach the ribbon on the back. We drilled holes in ours because the boards we used were pretty heavy and thick. ***
Once they dried, I got sand paper and roughed up the edges, sides and front a little bit because I love that look. You could leave them more clean looking if you prefer it.
I wiped them off really good with a rag to make sure all of the dust was off and then put a coat of modge podge on to attach the photo. I got my Modge Podge at Hobby Lobby and I prefer the Matte finish but they have many different finishes depending on your preference.
*** Modge Podge is easy to make but I didn’t find that out until after I purchased mine. I’m not sure how to achieve different finishes but the simple recipe is one part Elmer’s glue to one part water ***
I gave them a couple hours to dry and then attached the ribbon to my desired length.
There are a bunch of variations that could be done to this project. I hope you have fun making this one or getting creative and making one that suits you and your home!
Happy Crafting!!
