Please remove your shoes! SIGN

Mornin'!

I might sound quite chipper, but you needn't be misled.  I'm typing from under my cozy blankets while the world outside is covered in a much colder blanket of snow.  Hubbs took the two older boys to the rec for swim and gymnastics.  I on the other hand have a very gnarly flu that my oldest so generously shared with me, so badda bing- badda boom here I am.  I'll take this time (before baby wakes up) to share with you a previous project I made.

We moved into our new home last April and had brand new carpet installed, so we decided to implement a "no shoes in the house" rule...

'Please remove your shoes' sign.

Before we start, decoupage, while the name sounds a bit intimidating, is a pretty cool form of art that I recently stumbled upon.  We've all been conditioning for our decoupaging moment to shine for years!  Think back to Kindergarten/1st grade, cutting, pasting, cutting more, pasting more.  Dumping glue all over your artwork just to see what happens.  Peeling elmers glue off your fingers, only to repeat the above steps.  Yep, we're all decoupagers because decoupage is just cutting and pasting!  Awesome right?!  I love starting a learning curve with a serious head start...

Materials:
-decoupage glue (I used modpodge, but I have heard plenty of claims that 1 part white Elmers glue and 1 part water does the trick)
-wooden craft frame (got mine at Michaels for approx. $1 some time ago) just plain unfinished wood, no glass included.
-white (or other desired color) acrylic paint
-scrapbooking paper
-old wire costume necklace (I made this one back in college and rarely wore it), or ribbon, chain, or what ever strikes your fancy that you can attach.
-old ink stamp pad or distressing ink pad. (optional)
-credit card (No, you will not be shopping.  A library card or other sturdy card will work as well)
-paint brush
-pin/sewing needle/earring/seam ripper/razor blade or any other super fine makeshift poking tool for popping small air pockets.
a bit of wire (you can pull the paper off of the produce twistie ties)
-Drill and small drill bit OR hot glue gun

First off, I LOVE-LOVE-LOVE the old barn style/ Americana look, so with that being said my sign was intentionally a little 'rough around the edges.'  But seriously- I roughed mine up a bit on purpose. 

So- frame first:
-Paint sides of frame with arcylic paint in desired color.  I chose white.  Let dry.  Fortunately in this case acrylic dries quickly, a few min. if you didn't glop it on.

-Brush on a layer of glue/modpodge and place scrapbooking paper on top.

-Brush on another layer of glue/modpodge on top of paper.

-Using credit card/library card smooth out the surface of the scrapbooking paper working from the middle outward as to push all airbubbles out.  If air bubbles can't be smoothed out, use pin to make a very discreet hole then carefully smooth with credit card once more.  Air pocket should be gone.

-Once smoothed out, let dry.

-Cut around the edges of the frame to trim off most excess scrapbooking paper.

-Use credit card edge to scrape the front corners of the frame until any excess scrapbooking paper is removed.  If edges are rough or imperfect, then perfect.  It's supposed to look a little bit weathered.

-Paint on another layer of glue/modpodge.  This is just a finishing layer to give a nice finished texture to your frame.  Be sure to get the sides of the frames (where you painted acrylic earlier) and any rough edges of scrapbooking paper along the corners of the frame where you sanded/scraped off excess paper with the credit card.  Let dry.

-Drill two small holes into the frame about 3-4 inches apart (or hot glue ribbon or wire necklace to the back of the frame with a likewise distance)

-Attach necklace segment into holes using piece of wire.  You can simply twist it a few times on back to hold in place in each hole.

-Using the distressing ink/ink pad, lightly smear the edges and corners until you get the desired darkenss.  Remember, when in doubt, put the project down and walk a way.  Come back and decide if you need the ink darker.

-Using a pencil sketch out the writing on the bottom, or if you're lazy like me, just paint it out.  Remember we're not going for perfection here.

For the photo: I took a picture of my kids feet, and in Photoshop gave it a 60% sepia filter and lens distortion vignetting.  If you'd like to use my image, I believe you can save the image below.  Please let me know if the resolution is no bueno for a 4x6 or 5x3.5 (which is the typical size of a craft frame).  I am still working out what can and can't be done in Blogger with regards to links and file sharing.  I'm a technology challenged blogging rookie slowly trudging along the learning curve.

So there you have it.  I, sad to admit, had all of these things among my crafting heap, so my total cost was $0 spent specifically for this project.  If you have any questions, comments, please leave below.  I'm happy to clarify, respond.  Took me about 1 hour including drying time.