Frankie Say RELAX Tutorial

For Mother's Day this year (which we celebrated last weekend as it was the first time we could all gather together) I decided I wanted to make gifts instead of buying them.  I saved money, but most importantly I poured love into all my creations for my amazing Momma!  Everything was a hit, and I couldn't be happier with how it all came together!

My parents have a little house on the lake where they go to "get away", but sometimes my mom has a hard time allowing herself the rest she deserves.  So I thought that I'd make her something to help remember to RELAX!

I started with a wooden sign I got from Goodwill for $3 and some letters from Hobby Lobby, I believe they were under $1 apiece.  I primed them:

And then spray painted them black.  (With enamel paint by accident.  Fortunately the paint adhered to my latex primer.  Whoopsie!)

I then cut some pretty green scrapbook paper to cover the board.  I contemplated some black scrapbook paper for the letters, but the paper looked gray and "off" against the black letters.  It was too busy.

 

So I just left the letters black. 

 

 RELAX!

My scrapbook paper wasn't long enough to run the length of the board...

So I trimmed it so that the seam would be hidden behind the "L"

Pulled out the trusty Mod Podge...

And glued the paper down, pushing out bubbles with a stiff piece of cardboard.

Then I sanded the edges of the all letters...

Okay, that's bugging me.

That's better!

I glued the sanded letters to the board with E600.

Meanwhile, the puppies took the message to heart:

Hmmm... it's a little boring...

It needs some distressing, I think!

I mixed black acrylic paint with a little water and tested it on a scrap piece of paper.

I "washed" the green background with the diluted paint, and then dry-brushed undiluted black paint around the letters.

I wiped away excess paint with a paper towel.

dab dab dab

Much better!  I prefer the antiqued look versus the stark black on green.

About this time I discovered that I had glued the letters upside down.  The hangers on the back were the wrong way!  Um, OOPS.

At least it looks cute...

And everyone got a kick out of the upside-downess.  In fact, my mom decided to hang it that way!  She said that way she can read it when she's on the floor from too much Patron relaxing.

She didn't have a chance to hang it up, but when she does I will take a pic to share with you!

I hope you enjoyed my RELAX tutorial!  Remember to check the back before you glue your letters down... or don't and have a giggle when you look at your sign when you're drunk while you RELAX!

I am linking to a ton of great parties, so many that I simply cannot list them all here!  Pretty pretty please visit my list of Craft and Tutorial parties HERE to see all the parties I linked to!  A wealth of insipration awaits you!