DIY Wooden Sign

Decorative wooden signs seem to be everywhere these days, especially in those cute little boutiques we all love! However, a lot of them are pretty expensive. Instead of paying big bucks, I wanted to share will ya'll how I made one of these cute wooden signs for our family beach house! It was super easy, and turned out really cute!

MATERIALS

• Wood
• Spray paint
• Sand paper
• Pencil
• Ruler
• Acrylic paint
• Paint brushes
• Mod Podge Clear Acrylic Sealer Spray, Gloss

First, find your desired size of wood. Lucky for me, I liked the size I had so I didn't have to do any wood cutting. Depending on the type of paint you use, you may need to prime the wood, but since I used spray paint that included primer, I got to skip this step.

Next, I went ahead a spray painted the wood. I started at the top and worked my way down spraying horizontally, in a back and forth motion (like in lines). Make sure to release the spray button when you get to each end before you begin the next line. This will make your paint look more even throughout so you don't end up with dark blobs on the ends of the wood. Let the paint dry depending on what time the can suggests.

After the paint is completely dry, sand down the paint to give the sign a more rustic and distressed look. Focus a lot on the corners and the edges of the sign. You can do as much or as little sanding as you want to get whatever look you're going for. I did a substantial amount of sanding because I wanted mine to look very distressed with little paint.

Next, I wrote the words I wanted directly on the sign with a pencil. I used my ruler to get an idea of where the middle of the sign was so I could plan where I would start each word. Make sure to write lightly so if you mess up you can easily erase and there won't be random lines all over your sign.

Lastly, I used navy acrylic paint to paint on the words. Make sure to use the right size paint brushes that you are most comfortable with to get the right amount thick or thinness you want! I would suggest practicing a bit if this is your first time painting letters. After the words are completely dry, spray the board with the mod podge spray to seal the paint and give it a glossy look. You can add as much or as little of this depending on how glossy you want your sign to be!

Here's how my sign turned out!

I'm still trying to decided what might be the best way to hang up the sign. Since the wood is pretty thin, using nails and a wire isn't really an option, but that's a great way if your wood is thick. I think I might use a decorative rope to hang mine! What else would ya'll suggest?

Keep Reading:

DIY Dorm Room Headboards

Getting Crafty

Firecracker 4th of July Cake

With the Fourth of July right around the corner I thought I would make something delicious for the occasion. Of course I had to browse through Pinterest to get some ideas of how to decorate it. And here's what I came up with; a Red Velvet Firecracker Cake. Red Velvet has been my favorite type of cake for as long as I can remember. And I happen to have Red Velvet Cupcake mix in my pantry, so with my patriotic vision in mind, I turned the mix into a bundt cake.

Here are the ingredients used (minus the ones listed on the cupcake box).

I mixed the ingredients and baked the cake according to the directions on the box. I did however, have to adjust my cooking time given I wasn't making the cupcakes.

I let the cake cool and then it was time for the decorating. This was by far my favorite part. To get the firecracker look, I melted each icing in a bowl for about 45 seconds and then drizzled each color on the cake separately with a spoon. Be sure to heat up and drizzle on one icing at a time or the other 2 colors will harden again while your decorating. As your drizzling on the last color, in my case red, make sure to start pouring on the sprinkles so they stick to the icing before it hardens. It might help to get someone to do this for you. I had Clark pour on the sprinkles for me since that was the easiest part. :)

Happy Fourth!!!

Love Knows No Distance | LDR Care Package

February is a big month for Clark and I. We celebrated my birthday on the 2nd, Valentine's Day today, our (3 year) anniversary on the 16th, and his birthday on the 17th (yes I'm older than him and I never let him forget it)! Since we both have just started back at school, there's no way for us to be with each other. It makes me a little sad because this is our first time not with each other for these special occasions. But, just because we're not together doesn't mean I can't shower him with gifts like I normally do; I'm a huge gift giver, what can I say!? For Christmas I got Clark a GoPro, so for all our celebrations this month I decided to make him one big gift that was a little more personal, well really it's a lot of little things in one big care package! Here's what I put inside:

First I made him Open When letters. Now these I have been wanting to make for awhile but never had the occasion, so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to give them to him.

I'll share with you what I put inside some of them!

Open when you miss me ~ Inside I put a recent picture of us, a list of songs he can listen to when he's missing me and a spritz of my perfume on a small piece of paper.

Open when you're stressed out ~ Inside I put a bunch of notecards with different bible verses that he can look up and I also wrote a motivational letter to keep his spirits up!

Open when it's the day before you get to see me again ~ Inside I put a letter and LDR coupons that are redeemable when we're together. These I got from LDR Magazine online, I love this place because they have tons of free LDR printables!

{ Photo from www.ldrmagazine.com }

Open when you need a laugh or a smile ~ Inside I put a few funny pictures of us from the past few years and I wrote funny quotes on note cards and put those inside as well. I have to share with you one of my favorite quotes because I just love it (haha LDR jokes)!

Open when you need to know how much I love you ~ This one is a little more simple, but it's definitely my favorite. Inside there is a love letter I wrote for Clark, just so he never forgets.

This is only some of what I put in the letters because a few are a little personal, but you get the idea! I love these because it's a way for me to be there with Clark when he's struggling or just needs a reminder that I'm always there for him.

Awhile back I had gotten Clark and I cute matching keychains, but his broke recently and with us being so far away from each other I thought I would get a new pair to replace them. I ordered these unique long distance keychains from Etsy! There were tons of LDR keychains to choose from, but I liked these the best! I kept the anchor for myself and I gave him the float. 

These are just fun little happy's I stuck in there! The Poo-Pourri spray is my favorite because Clark just loves this stuff and I find that so funny. He mentioned to me awhile ago that he was all out so I knew it would be a perfect edition to the package!

I also got him a TCU Tankard Stein from rallyhouse.com which he loved! I put a few of his favorite snacks in there as well as just a Valentine's, anniversary and birthday card. And I can't forget about his TCU painting I made for him, check out Getting Crafty for pictures. I decided to make the box a little more fun to open so I decorated is based on the different things we our celebrating! Here is the final product!

{ Left to right: Valentine's Day, LDR quote, our anniversary date, his Birthday }

Getting Crafty

I promised I would post my paintings when I was finished and here they are! I planned on making a lot more, but I have had so much other stuff to do to get ready to go back to school so I didn't have enough time!

This TCU one is my favorite, it was so fun to paint for Clark!! I'm going to send it to him in a care package along with some other things and I can't wait to hear what he thinks about it! (Clark you better not be looking at this right now!)

I made this one to hang in my dorm room at school so every time I look at it I can think about Clark and how much he means to me! I have seen so many long distance paintings and other diy projects so I decided to make one for myself!

For this one I just started painting and decided what I was going to do as I went along. I picked some of my favorite colors and painted random strokes on the canvas. I let that dry and then I placed stickers down so I could paint the whole canvas again with one color and then peel away the letters to reveal the cool background! This one I just made for fun and hung in my room at home!

Keep Reading:

Love Knows No Distance - LDR Care Package

10 Easy Ways to Boost Your Mood

Saying Goodbye

Praying For Your Relationship

Being Together Without Being There

DIY Dorm Room Headboards

After searching Pinterest for numerous hours looking at cute dorm rooms, I knew from the beginning that a headboard was a must for my room. Many websites that I found sold headboards for more than it would take to just make it myself. I have found out the best way to make your own headboard after making one for my roommate and myself. Here are step by step directions and the materials you'll need!

Materials:

{ All materials shown from Joann Fabrics }

1. 1/4 inch Plywood
2. 2 x 4 wood
3. Sheets of foam
4. Batting
5. Spray Adhesive
6. Fabric
7. Staple Gun
8. Siccors
9. Jig saw

Steps:

1. Trace your headboard design on poster board. I traced the top of a chair to get the curve at the top and a trashcan to trace the cut outs on the sides.
   
   
   
   { Poster Board | Joann Fabrics }
   
   
2. Trace the poster board onto the ply wood and cut it out with a jig saw. My headboard measured 36in wide and you can make it as tall and as short as you want depending on the style.
   
   
   
   
   
3. Trace the cut headboard onto the foam. I put the two sheets of foam together since one sheet wasn't tall enough. 
4. Cut out the foam with an electric knife and hot glue gun the two pieces together.
   
   
   
   { Clark being the sweet boyfriend that he his helping me with the electric knife }
   
   
5. Nail the wood 2 x 4's to the back of the board as a stand and then nail two more pieces (horizontal) to the top and the bottom of the back of the headboard, this will keep it sturdy for when you lean back against it.
   
   
   
   
   
6. Use spray adhesive to glue the foam to the headboard.
7. Lay out your batting and place the headboard face down. Pull the batting tight and staple gun it to the back of the board to hold it in place. Cut off any excess batting.
   
   
   
   
   
8. Lay out your fabric just like you did with the batting and cut the fabric so that you have about 6 inches hanging off all the way around the headboard so you will be able to attach it later. My fabric was wrinkly so I steamed it before I started stapling. 
9. Start by putting one staple on the bottom and two staples on each side, make sure to keep the fabric pulled tight. This will give you a good hold on the sides but still allow you to pull when you're working on the top. This is definitely a two person job.
10. This is where it gets tricky... At the top of the headboard, cut slits on the fabric on the back. Make sure to cut perpendicular to the curve, this will allow you to pull the fabric back in different directions to keep the curve smooth. 
    
    
    
    
    
11. Play around with the fabric to see which way to pull each piece until you get the look that you want and staple it down. Start with the cut out curves on the side and do the top curve last.
12. I stapled a white sheet on the back to cover it and make it look a little prettier.
    
    
    
    The final product! See how it looks in my dorm room.
    
    
    
    
    

    Keep Reading:

    15 College Dorm Room Essentials
    
    How to Survive Your Freshman Year of College

Bible Verses to Pray For Your Relationship

Earlier this week I decided that I wanted to give Clark something special that he could take with him to college, something that he would actually use. I wanted to go along the lines of something that would make our LDR easier! So I thought I'd share with ya'll what I came up with. Prayer is definitely the most important thing to help us make this transition. Time spent in prayer will help keep God at the center of our relationship and to trust His timing and plan for us.

{Kate Spade Notebook | Walgreens Notebook}

I bought a small notebook and divided it into 6 sections (loving, forgiveness, commitment, encouragement, be slow to anger and our future). I wrote 28 verses to pray for our relationship in the different sections and I left a few blank pages after each one in case Clark wanted to add anything else. Here are a few verses that I used:

On Loving: 1 Peter 4:8

On Forgiveness: Ephesians 4:32

On Commitment: 1 Corinthians 10:13

On Encouragement: 1 Thessalonians 5:11

Be Slow To Anger: Proverbs 14:29

For Our Future Together: Romans 8:28

I was very pleased with how it turned out and Clark loved it! I was so thrilled that I even bought my self a cute notebook so I can make my self a prayer journal!

For more LDR gifts, check out the care package I made for Clark!