Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Custom Painted Birth Announcements

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Yesterday while sitting at my desk my eye caught on the photo birth announcements of three friends' beautiful new babies.
Thinking of baby gifts for them, it occurred to me that this was the perfect opportunity to try a new project I've been thinking about.

A couple of months back I stumbled across a painted subway style birth announcement on Pinterest. 

I saved the photo to my board labeled "Things I want to make." (I've been using this as my memo pad to go back to this board for ideas when I get the itch to try out a new project).









My husband recently bought me the Silhouette Cameo for Mother's Day which I wanted for just this type of project. But, here's where I have a confession to make.
I'm pretty smart and I'm definitely pretty tech savvy,  but for some reason I've really struggled with this machine. Maybe because I thought I was smart enough that I didn't need to read the directions? 

It's taken me a bit, but I've got it down now to the point where I can at least do some basic cutting.

So here's how this project went down.

1. Using the Silhouette layout program, taking the content from the birth announcement, I created my layout and then sent my letters to the cutting machine to be cut out on adhesive vinyl.
2. Adding transfer paper to the back of each word turned them into stickers that I could then position.
3. Next I added the baby's name so it would be the boldest element, in Martha Stewart's "cornmeal."
4. I then added contrast colors to the areas where I would place the rest of the words.
5. Once everything dried overnight, I added the rest of the vinyl letters and then gave the entire piece two good coats of white.
6. Once the white was cured, I carefully removed the letters with a sharp blade and went back in with a fine artist's brush to touch up any areas I wasn't pleased with.
7. I then sanded the entire piece to distress it and remove any raised paint left by the letters.
8. Two coats of spray gloss poly and we're done!

This was a bit more time consuming than I realized (drying time), but I love the way it turned out!

Here's my first finished piece. 

Not to brag, but I'm pretty impressed with myself. I LOVE it and can't wait to make two more!!





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3 comments:

  1. This is absolutely amazing. I love it!! You should sell these on Etsy!!

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  2. I just found this on Pinterest and LOVE it! Just for clarification, you painted your wood the teal, yellow, etc, then placed your letter cut-outs on the board, then painted over it with white and then peeled off the letters?
    Thanks!
    Liz

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