Modge Podge Mother's Day Project

Hello Again!   

     One thing y'all might find out about me is I'm late... late for just about everything in life. Late in a sense that no matter what I do Murphy's Law catches up to me and creates some sort of insane time portal that prevents me from being on time to anything every single day of my life! I could leave my house 2 hours early for an appointment at a place 10 minutes away and still be 5 minutes late! Because of this I am just now posting my Mother's Day project on the Tuesday after Mother's Day at 2 in the morning... I hope that y'all enjoy it and of course this doesn't have to be for Mother's Day,  it would be great for birthdays, gifts, or even just yourself!

Sorry about this awful photo... Hopefully it will be replaced once these find their permanent home

   

 I only have one local craft store and due to my natural tardiness I usually have to be a last minute shopper which means what they have is what I have to work with. I found these 13" wooden letters that were boxy enough for me to use for the photos to spell out FAMILY. I then purchased 6 pages of black and whiteish scrapbook paper and then I made my way to the wonderful selection of Modge Podge! I kid you not there is around 10,000 different kinds of this stuff and you feel a little overwhelmed reading all the labels... I figured it would be best since working with photos to just go with the Matte finish so it wouldn't reflect so badly on the walls when hung. The Clear Acrylic Sealer is to seal the scrapbook paper so you are able to modge podge with it a little easier... if you don't your paper may start to crinkle up and cause creases in the finished project. Oh and don't forget your little Sawtooth Photo Hangers if your letters don't have hangers on the back of them then you will need to find a way to get them to hang on the wall. For the photos I went to a local drug store with a photo cd I created to get all of the prints done. The wallets came 4 to a 4x6 sheet so they will need to be cut down to size and I believe I had 41 of them printed.

Step 1:
     Take your scrapbook pages and lightly spray them with the Acrylic Sealer in a nice open area like outside or even your garage like I had to because it was raining. I applied 3-4 layers only to the front of the paper which seemed to be enough to seal it but also leave it still acting like paper.

Step 2:
     While those scrapbook pieces dry for an eternity in your humid hot funky garage... ok may be that's just me... lay your wallet size photos out on your letters to see if you need to cut any angles. By this I mean that if you want all of your photos to be straight on letters like the A and M and Y you will need to trim them down or you will have overhang. What I did was lay them all out the way I wanted them to look then I trimmed only the photos that needed to be trimmed... I then neatly stacked each letters worth of photos in the same order as they would go on them. This would also be a great time to add the sawtooth photo hangers to the back of your letters if you need to! Measure down about an 1" on each letter so when it comes time to hang them they will go up straight.

     Some things to make this step a little easier... Fold the photos over the edge of the letter to give you an angle to work off of... I trimmed about 1/4" in from the fold. Also if you are using the sawtooth hangers keep in mind the way a photo hangs. The L and F needed to be placed off center so the letters would hang straight once put up and additional hangers had to be used on the M and Y. Also, some brands of the hangers may end up poking through the front of your letters. Fortunately there was a belt sander in the garage and a man in the house that took those protrusions right off! I suggest looking for ones that are shorter than the thickness of the letters :)



Step 3: 
     Put a thin layer of Modge Podge on your letters and lay the strips over to cover the fronts of them. Add more Modge Podge where needed. Be sure you press down firmly to seal the paper to the wooden letters. 



Tip: Less is better!! I'm serious, if you overload your letters with Modge Podge you will still run the risk of your paper looking just awful even if it's been sealed!

  Step 4:
     Once your paper has dried onto your letters then you will need to take your razor/exacto knife and cut away the excess. I just ran it against the edge of the letters and kept fingers and hands out the way! Please use proper technique and cut away from yourself and anyone else to prevent accidents with these nice sharp objects ;) You could stop here if you'd like I think just the look of paper is GREAT!! Especially for a nice art project for the house all you would need to do is Modge Podge the top of the paper and be done!



Step 5:
    Apply a small amount of Modge Podge to the top of the paper and lay out your photos! Allow the Modge Podge to dry according to the label before applying the top coat... Once dry I applied 3 layers on top of the photos then left it to dry overnight hanging out of reach of my 14 month old.


FYI: Modge Podge takes a while to dry! Don't assume after 12 hours that you can stack these letters on top of each other because they will stick and it will ruin the finish and then you will have to redo parts of the project or possibly the whole thing... I found that out the hard way when mom popped in and I had to reach and grab to hide! 

Have a Modge Podge tip?? Please comment below!! 

Thanks a bunch y'all and Happy Crafting!!

Ashley