Handmade & Heartfelt

     It has been a long, LONG time since the last blog post!! I can’t even begin to explain everything that has been going on the last few months, but blogging is back and I have a holiday project to share!

     Once again the Silhouette Cameo proved its worth and helped me make these two sided wooden holiday signs for our family. One side of the board has a heartfelt saying for Thanksgiving and the other is decorated with a Christmas quote. I really love that they are double sided and can serve as décor for two holidays. I thought they’d make any mantel more festive so I made 14 in total, for our family’s gifts this year.

     First step was buying the wood. I bought two 12 inch by 10 foot boards and cut them into the 14 pieces I needed. Some boards were cut down to 12x12 inch squares and others into 12x14 inches depending on the phrase that was being put onto them. Second step was sanding and staining. Lucky for me my main man was home and helped me by sanding every board with our electric mouse sander, that helped so much and really made the process go quicker. We had our own assembly line going, I cut, he sanded, I wiped the boards down with a damp cloth and I stained each piece, front and back. I used my two go to stain colors from Rust-oleum (Dark Walnut and Weathered Gray) and mixed the two colors on a few boards as well. After the stain completely dried I put two good coats of polyurethane on each board to protect the finish and allow the vinyl lettering to stick to the wood better.

      Vinyl lettering… one of my current obsessions, there is so much you can do with it. Check out THIS POST where I show you multiple uses for vinyl and I give a step by step tutorial on transferring vinyl to any surface. So, using the Silhouette Cameo (and the program it comes with) I printed each design and one by one transferred them onto the wooden signs. My cousin, Katie, has the Silhouette, so using it is the perfect excuse to spend time with her. Transferring vinyl onto 14 boards, front and back takes a good chunk of time, which meant lots of time to catch up, chat and watch girly holiday movies together. She was a huge help, without her it would have taken me twice as long to complete each board, and I was definitely on a time crunch this year.

      Each family member got their own board, uniquely designed to their personality, with a few repeats, of course. All in all it took two full days to whip out these handmade Christmas gifts, with the help of my awesome husband and amazing cousin. Make something by hand this year, homemade gifts really come from the heart.

     I am glad to be back. Just because I wasn’t blogging doesn’t mean I wasn’t working on projects the last few months, Katie and I both have more to share, soon!

          xoxo

                   Rachele