My little Daniel is 4 1/2 months old, and since before he was born I've been trying hard to decide what I wanted the theme for his room to be. I love Football, but didn't want to be ultra-generic and have a sports-themed room (although he does have a Chicago Bears jersey and a Brazilian soccer jersey hanging in his room - my husband served a mission in Brazil and loves soccer for those who are confused by that one). Finally, after much thought, about a week ago I decided I wanted to do it Captain America/The Avengers themed. Yes, I know, super-heroes can be a generic boy-thing too, but I love Captain America and some of the other Avengers characters. I'm sort of a super-hero nerd (as my husband can attest), so I felt that would be the perfect theme for his room. Plus, I love how Captain America was created in a time of old-fashioned values...with the way the world has gone, we could use some super heroes with good morals and values. And, I wanted to incorporate some church-y things to help keep my son's eye on the ball as he grew up (for example, I'm bought a cheap wall map and am having my sister-in-law print up some vinyl lettering for me so I can make this - Thank you, Pinterest!).
Anywho, I've been wanting to make a plaque for Daniel's room with a piece of wood and my wood-burner (I've used it on a few other projects in the past and LOVE it!) which I've had FOREVER, but couldn't decide what to do with it until I picked a theme for his room. My husband and I batted around a few ideas, and the finished product that you see below is the brain-child of my dear husband (what would I do without him??). So, here's what I made...
Cute, right?? I thought it was perfect for my little guy's room! Captian America shield, Book of Mormon, Missionary tag, I thought it sent the perfect message. Obviously, the choice of super-hero and other features (like the name on the missionary tag) can be interchanged, but for what I was planning, this was PERFECT! I love my smart husband!!
Here are the steps I took to create this plaque:
First, start out by drawing down what you want on the plaque on a piece of paper. It's easier to erase on paper than it is on wood, plus, you don't have to hang up your drawing, so you can make lots of mistakes and adjustments in order to reach your final design, with no worries. Also, you'll, of course, need a wood plaque. I bought mine years ago from Wal*Mart in the craft section, near the clock parts. If I remember correctly, it was pretty cheap.
Once you have a final drawing, transfer it on over to your piece of wood. Sometimes the pencil doesn't want to erase completely off the wood (I drew free-hand onto my plaque, so I say this from experience), so if you're nervous about mistakes, use transfer paper and trace it onto your plaque.
Once you have your drawing finalized, start with the wood burning. If you don't have a wood burner, these can be purchased at Wal*Mart or pretty much any craft store. I bought mine when I bought the wood plaque years ago and it, too, was pretty cheap. If you don't want to do this step, you can skip it, it's not necessary..I just like the way the burnt wood looks and feels. But, it is a time consuming process and requires a bit of patience. Unlike pencil, once you burn the wood, it's permanent (obviously). You won't be able to erase any mistakes.
Once you have it all burnt, go back and erase any stray pencil marks. I used a Gum eraser, and with some hard work, I got all my stray marks to disappear. Here it is all burnt:
Once you've got that finished, you can move onto coloring everything in. This step, too, is optional. I personally preferred this particular project to be colored. Now, you can use any medium you want to color this project (marker, pencil, paint, etc), but I personally chose colored pencil because I like the way it looks and the range of colors I had to work with. Plus, I had WAY more pencil colors than paint colors.
On the word "HERO", I wanted to make it stand out a little more than the rest of the words (to help make my point), so I drew in colored dots with pencil all over the word. These colors coordinated with the Captain America shield.
Once it's all colored, you'll want to seal it to keep it from getting dirty and to keep the colors from smudging and/or fading. You can use varnish or any clear sealer. I personally chose to use Mod Podge because it's what I had on hand...I didn't really feel like going out to buy some clear sealer and I knew the Mod Podge would work just fine (which it did!).
Because I used colored pencils, I Mod Podged each individual color first, so as to not smear my colors and ruin the project that I had spent hours on.
Once I did that, I went back and Mod Podged the entire thing, applying a couple of coats to make sure I had it sealed up nice and good. If you wood-burn the plaque, the sealer will pool in the cracks. I simply went back over the deepest cracks with a very fine paint brush and brushed most of the Mod Podge back out, that way it wouldn't fill up the cracks.
Now you'll want to install a hook on the back so you can hang it. You can get these little picture hanging kits almost anywhere - literally. I've even seen them in Walgreens. They're cheap and very useful, so if you don't have one, I recommend getting one. You'll definitely use it for more than just this project.
I used a hanger with teeth and nails that were about half as long as the thickness of my piece of wood (you obviously don't want your nails to stick out of the front of your project). Measure out where you want your hook, make sure it centered and level, and then hammer away!
And voila! Once you've got the hook on that bad boy, you're ready to hang it. Here is the completed work, hanging in my little boy's room:
Adorable, right?? I'm in love with it!! Though this project was a bit time-consuming, it was SO much fun, and SO worth it to have a custom piece of art-work hanging in my little man's room.
I hope you all enjoy making ones of your own for the little guys in your life! :)
