Happy Mothers Crafting

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Happy Mothers Day to my mom, Sara, and my mother in law, Reba! By now they've both seen their Mother's Day gifts so I can now share them with all of you. I knew they didn't need another trinket laying around the house so I figured they would love nothing more than a picture of their grandchildren. I didn't want to just print a picture and stick it in a frame, I wanted to create something unique that they can keep for years.

It's been all the rage to do photo transfer to wood, so I decided to give it a try. I looked for a tutorial that would be easy to follow and quick, I followed the tutorial by Southern Revivals from oh, 3 years ago! So yeah I'm way behind since this has been a thing for at least 3 years!

My first stop for this project was of course Michaels, mostly because its the only craft store in town. When we first moved here in 2014 there wasn't any craft store within 30 minutes! So I'll settle for what I've got and drive 30 min to Hobby Lobby for the bigger projects! So, at Michaels I knew I wanted to do more of the pallet style wood board, they have several different sizes but the one I chose was 10"x10" then based on the tutorial I knew I needed Mod Podge - Photo Transfer Medium for the photo to be able to transfer to the wood. I decided I wanted to decorate the wood a bit as well with some flowers so it wouldn't be so plan, I chose some Recollections Paper Flowers that went with the picture and board.

The only downside to doing a photo transfer is that you have to print the picture using a LaserJet Printer and remember to mirror image your picture (as you can see I did not forgetting he had words on his shirt, oops!). So I had to send my picture by PDF to Office Depot, which doesn't cost much but isn't very convenient!

Now that you have the materials needed follow the tutorial by Southern Revivals! It worked great for me. I wish I'd rubbed a little bit more paper off in a couple areas but I was worried about damaging the image, and I think it still looks great. I chose to sand the edges a bit, which is a good thing because some of the picture came off anyway on the edges! I then sealed it with Mod Podge Matte Finish, but be careful when you do it so the Mod Podge doesn't show on the wood like mine did (see you can learn from my mistakes!).

I also have a Silhouette Cameo, so I decided to put a quote on the bottom of the boards unique to each grandmother. For my Mother In Law I put "They call me Nana" and for my mom I put "They call me MaMaw". Then on the back of each sign I put the kids names and the year.

So after all that reading here is the finished product!

I love the added flowers! I had mommy brain earlier this week and totally forgot about the flowers so my mom got hers in the mail without the flowers, so if she decides she likes the look with the flowers I can add hers later! I just added them using E6000, I'm sure a hot glue gun works as well but I had it handy and it dries quick!

Thank you for stopping by, I hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day!

Alison