My "Grandma" Plaque and a discount code!

Hey, faithful readers! Hope you are staying warm with this crazy weather we've been having.
 

I'll start off by saying that my Grandma Sonja is THE coolest grandmother you'll ever meet. She lives up in Michigan (in the U.P. for those of you who know what that is), and she comes to visit about once a year. I know that when she comes, it means thrift stores and garage sales. She loves them more than I do, and that's saying a lot. 

She says what's on her mind, makes a friend every place she goes, and once she puts her mind to something, it's as good as done. A couple of years ago, she was down visiting and we were talking about tattoos. She said "You know, I always wanted a butterfly on my ankle. Let's go do it." And we did. How many other grandmothers do you know that had their first tattoo done when they were 70?

I knew I wanted to make something for her house, but didn't know exactly what yet. I kept seeing buttons for "Say It On The Wall" on other blogs, so I checked it out. 

It's a great option if you are looking for vinyl decals, especially for those of us without a Silhouette. I was really impressed with the options and prices. After browsing through their products, I selected the "Grandmothers are just antique little girls" vinyl. I picked my color and placed my order on Tuesday, and it was here on Friday. I have not been blessed with patience, so yay for quick shipping!

I was originally going to just get a wood plaque from Hobby Lobby, but thought I'd check the thrift stores first. I knew my grandmother would appreciate that, with her shared love of thrifting.

I was at Goodwill, and spotted this rectangle thing (I don't know what you'd call it) and it was only 99 cents. SCORE! So I picked that up, hit up HL on the way home for scrapbook paper, and decided to browse while I was there. I found these super cute flowers in the scrapbook section, and with my 40% coupon, it was only $3. I normally would just make the flowers, but after buying the fabric and the hassle, the $3 was worth it to me. Plus, I loved how the flowers would lend themselves to the "vintage" feel I was going for.

So my first step? Cover the rectangle "thingy" with a billion coats of vintage white craft paint. I'm serious, it took so many coats to cover it. I probably could have went with spray paint, but with the 20 degree temps outside, spray painting wasn't an option. Or I could have waited until it warmed up, but that whole lack of patience thing comes into play. So coat after coat after coat of paint, here we come. When that was dry, I cut out my decal and picked my flowers, and figured out the placement.

So now that that's done, and I have a general idea of what I'm going for, I cut out my scrapbook paper, spread the mod podge on the front of the rectangle, and placed the paper on it. I then set it face down on a sheet of wax paper (so it doesn't stick to my counter) and placed a coke case on it so the weight of the soda would help adhere the paper without wrinkles or bubbles.

After an hour or so, I took off the coke case, and then started putting mod podge on the front and sides. I knew that my white decals wouldn't show up very well on the pink and white paper, but I loved the print so I bought it anyway. To help the letters stand out, I added just a little bit of antique medium (the same kind used with my wall medallions) to my mod podge. After a few coats, I ended up with this.

So, my next step would be to add my vinyl letters, but I need to make sure that my flowers aren't going to cover the letters. So what I did was put my flowers on there, and then made a border with tiny strips of blue painters tape. That way, I know not to put my letters outside of those strips.

Then it's just a matter of putting the flowers to the side, and applying my letters. The decal came with transfer paper on the top. Before I pulled off the backing, I took a rubber decal squeegee and rubbed it on the front of the decal so the letters would stick to the transfer paper. Thank goodness for a hubby who was an art major, who has the random craft things that I find myself needing. Like a rubber decal squeegee. Then it's just a matter of pulling off the back of the decal paper, laying it on your surface, and using the decal squeegee (thanks babe!) and rubbing it on to make sure it's on there. If you don't have a decal squeegee, I've found that a credit card works pretty well.

Then it's just a couple more coats of mod podge (without the antique medium so my letters stay white), some hot glue to apply the flowers, and then voila!

Pretty cool, huh? I know my grandmother will love it. I just need the weather to warm up so I can go mail it.

Want to make one of your own? Laura from Say It On The Wall is offering my readers a 30% discount on any 6x6 inch tile decal! Just click the button below and use the promo code CRAFTS30.

*Just because the decal is made for a 6x6 tile, doesn't mean that it has to go on a 6x6 tile. You have scissors, right? Cut it apart, spread it out, arrange it in a rectangle, a circle, whatever. You have so many options here.
*Make sure you like where the decal is placed, BEFORE you lay it down. I lucked out and the words ended up where I wanted them, but had they not, I would have been pretty irritated.
*I originally cut out my decal between the lines, which left the "are just" and "little girls" on the same line. If I had to do this again, I would have cut out each word so the spacing between all the words ended up the same.
*If you are going to put fabric flowers on your piece, make sure that is your last step. You don't want to risk getting mod podge on your fabric.