free and crafty, part 4

Back again with your final installment of Land of the free, home of the crafty. I had more projects that I wanted to do like this one and this one, but they shall have to wait for next year. Or next week. Whenever the spirit moves.

So today I will show you how I transformed this little wooden square plaque. I got a couple of these at Christmas at my favorite store, Craft Warehouse, and never did anything with them. (surprise! surprise!) But then when I started getting all crafty last week, I remembered I had them, so I dug one out.

First off, I gave the grooves and edges two coats of blue paint. If I had been really anal about this project, I would've sanded down the grooves a little bit first, because it was pretty rough and bumpy, but I didn't. I know at least one person who will be very proud of me for that. Right, Barb?

Then I measured the little squares, and cut the patterned paper to fit. Can you believe I used the same papers for all four of my projects? And I still have quite a bit left over. Maybe I should actually use it to scrapbook???

I mod podged the papers on and let them dry a bit. At this point, I still wasn't exactly sure how I was going to finish it.

But I decided to use my trusty ol' Cricut again and finish it up with USA and some layered stars. Then I used glossy mod podge over the whole thing so it's nice and shiny. Then I went back to Craft Warehouse to buy the little metal stand because it didn't have anything on the back to stand it up. But what do you expect when you only pay $1 for it?

And now it's in my kitchen with the US map (on the wall) and some candles from our wedding that still have the same red star garland I used on them at Christmas. And you probably won't be surprised to know that those candles have been sitting there like that since Christmas. I had great intentions of buying other seasonal garland and doing the same thing with hearts and shamrocks, and Easter eggs, but I never got around to it. Like I say, there's always next year.