Personalised plaque / sign new baby

Thought I would share a commissioned personalised door sign and plaque that I made. This was for a friend to send to America for her brother who just had a little baby girl.

I used one of my bulk-bought plaques from ebay without holes drilled. Since I bought my dremel 3000 I wont buy them with the holes pre-drilled as sometimes I make something and decide that I prefer it not to have twine poking through at the front. With baby gifts, for example, I find that it a more eloquent finish can be achieved by attaching ribbon to the back of the sign using double sided tape.

I wanted to create a border on this sign as I wanted it to be quite plain, but eye catching nonetheless. I spray painted the entire plaque in white and left it dry. I then used making tape to section off the border. I was worried that the masking tape would pull up the paint when I took it off so I only placed the masking tape down loosely. When I pulled it up I realised the paint had seeped under the masking tape. Initially I was mortified but after leaving it to dry and them going back to it I decided I actually really liked it. It kind of gave it a a torn paper feel. Anyway, I spray painted my letters and hearts, measured out where I wanted them placed and then glued them down with super glue. To attach the ribbon to hang the sign I placed some double sided tape at either end of the plaque vertically (from top to bottom) and stuck the ribbon in place.

For the details plaque I used my Kobra spray paints again, and wooden bear shape bought off ebay and a heart embellishment bought from Debs cards & crafts (unfortunately now closed down).

Personalised canvas wall art gift

My work in progress is now a work complete, and one I am very pleased with:

I really should have measured the space before I ordered my embellishments as I think it is a little bit too small. Having said that, I have had this out in a spot where I see it daily and the more I see it the more I like it!

After putting the Whale and letters in place it looked like it was missing something:

So I added my trademark dotted border around the outside. I liked it, but still thought it could do with something else. So I carried on with the dots. First around the letter J, then around the smaller letters and finally around the whale. You can't see it very clearly on the main picture so here is a close up:

I love it! Can't wait to make more :o)

Current work in progress...

I ordered some decorative mdf shapes and letters from Lasersmith which arrived super fast-often there's a 7-10 day dispatch time on wooden craft items, but these were dispatched the very next day. Whilst they don't offer a massive range of shapes, I have found their prices very reasonable for letters. 

Anyway, it was my intention to create a personalised gift for my niece and nephew for their new bedrooms in their dad's house. I planned to decorate a large letter with cute embellishments and then frame it in a shadow box. When I received the letters they were sent in the wood that they had been cut out from. My eyes instantly lit up as I realised I would be able to use this as a stencil.

I dug out a canvas board I'd bought from a stationary shop in Llandudno which only cost a couple of pounds. I wanted to make a girly one first as I already had lots of lovely embellishments to use. However in my eagerness to get cracking I was really haphazard and it ended up a bit of a dogs dinner. Rather than waste the canvas I just needed to respray it with a darker colour. So I decided to spray the canvas in a dark blue and stencil on the letter in a lighter blue. Again, it was a bit of a rush job and I had to touch it up in places where the colour had leaked but I was really pleased with how it turned out. 

Now I just need to wait for my embellishment to arrive to further decorate it. I'm considering putting the rest of the name in 3cm letters going across the bottom with either a whale or an elephant wooden shape. What do you think? Letters in blue and shape in white? Or all in light blue? Decisions, decisions!

Where the colour leaked I simply sprayed a household sponge with the spray paint and dabbed at it with the correct colour. Next time I do this I'll take the time to cover areas I don't want paint getting onto with masking tape and spray into the stencil from straight above rather than at an angle so the paint doesn't leak.