Beach Cottage Birthday Present

I set out at the beginning of this year to make birthday presents for family and friends instead of buy them. I wanted to save money, true, but more importantly I wanted to give gifts that were unique and personal and that reflected the heart of the recipient. Well, so far, so good! My latest birthday present project was this beach-inspired wall art for my sweet sister-in-law. She loves all things beachy and reflects that in her decorating, so it wasn't too difficult to come up with a theme...

I started with a piece of beadboard and a garage sale frame for the base of the art. My Dad cut the beadboard to fit the frame, fastened it into the frame, then I painted the whole thing Heirloom White.

Next, I painted an 8" x 10" canvas board with a sand dollar/beach motif using acrylic craft paints...(I REALLY enjoyed doing this kind of painting again...it's been a while since I've painted anything non-digital...it felt good!)

...then I printed Psalm 139: 17-18 onto white cardstock, cut it into strips, artificially aged it with antique glaze, and used Mod Podge to attach it to the painting once it was dry...

I have a stash of various knobs and found three matching ones to use as hangers on the beadboard. They were stark white, so I used the same antique glaze on them as I used on the Scripture and then they matched just fine. I attached them using E-6000 glue. Then I topped off the frame with seashells from a family trip to the beach, also attached with E-6000 glue. Finally I glued the canvas board onto the beadboard to complete the framed wall hanging...

Once the framed part was complete, I took a 4" x 6" canvas board that I had, and painted a coordinating background on it. After that I simply painted "beach cottage" on the board, and glued on another shell at the top. To finalize it, I drilled two holes in the top of the small canvas and strung coordinating glass beads on a length of wire to make a hanger. I curled the ends of the wire to secure it. This made a nifty little sign to hang on one of the knobs...

I really liked how the whole piece turned out and my sister-in-law was thrilled with it...yay! Mission Accomplished! This project definitely got me thinking of similar things to make. After this one was completed I created another similar project for my bff's birthday, but with a different design and colors. I'll share photos of that wall art soon...

Thanks for letting me share a little taste of the beach with you! I hope you'll be blessed by the message of the Scripture passage I used for the art. God has definitely got YOU on His mind today and always...you can count on that!

"How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand."

Psalm 139:17-18

Have a glorious week friends!!

_______________________________

I'm linking up to the Thank Goodness it's Friday party at Craft Junkie Too!

and

Go check out all the great creative ideas!