Names of God

This is the big project that I mentioned here. I started it in November, but just pulled it back out last week to actually finish it.  It required a lot of work!  I have to tell you first, that this was not my idea. My inspiration came from here.  I found the picture on pinterest, and then discovered her blog.  She has some great ideas, and I particularly loved this project.  So, I took her idea and made it my own.  These pictures just don't do it justice, but with my camera this is as good as it gets.

 So I bought a cheap piece of plywood from Lowe's and got Mr. Chris to take some of the length off, to get it to the size I needed. (I have some ideas for that extra piece, too! :))  I painted the plywood white, and sanded it some to make it look distressed.  Looking back, I wish I would have chose an off white color. 

Then, Josh and I picked the names of God that we wanted to have plastered on this thing.  The ones that we love the most.  I printed them in different sizes and fonts, and then the WORK began.  I placed them on the board where I wanted them, and traced each letter to leave an indention in the wood.  This was time consuming and tedious!  I had to stop many times because of cramps. haha. You have to push into the wood really hard to leave an indention.

This is when I took the really long break from this project.  I finished the tracing in November, and then stuck it in my room and didn't pull it out again until February!  The painting begins!  I chose black and this mustard color because those are the colors that we have in our kitchen. Painting the letters was the best part.  It was so much fun to see it come to life.  Once everything was painted, I covered the whole thing with a crackle glaze.  Once it dried, I didn't like the shininess that it had, so I sanded over it.  It left the crackle, and made it look a little rougher.  I sealed it - then hung it above the table!

You really can't see the detail in these pictures, so you'll just have to take my word for it or come by and look for yourself! :)  There are definitely things that I would do differently if I did this over, but all in all I'm happy with it.  We love for this to be the focus when you walk into our apartment.  It is very imperfect, but a sweet reminder of our God and King!