What Our Crew Would Do- Whitney

I'm excited to be blogging here today! I'm Whitney from The Wood Connection, and I'm excited to share a project I put together over the weekend for Veterans Day. My step dad became a proud member of the Marines in 1968 at the age of 18. He served two tours in the Vietnam War and was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps medal by president Nixon and was also a recipient of the Purple Heart for his service in Vietnam. He passed away from cancer on November 11, 2010 which was Veterans Day. With the anniversary of this death and Veterans Day approaching I wanted to do something a little special for my mother and this is what I came up with...

Here is everything I used:
Star door hang
Texture cream
Roller foam brush
Paint
Wood glue
Rusty twisted wire
Wood-sheen wood stain
Ink pad
Matte finish spray
Paint brushes
Picture hooks and screws
Star embellishments
Banner piece
and some ribbon

I painted the back piece of the door hang with "Midnight Blue" and the Bead Board with "Tomato Spice" and "White" colors.

You can see that the colors are really bright but I was wanting to go for a rustic-distressed look to compliment a photo that I'm going to use on the project. After the paint was dry I sanded the edges and front of my star, removing some of the paint. Then I covered the star and bead board with Wood-Sheen stain and brown ink. Using a paper towel to smudge it around (the quick and easy 4a.m. method- ha ha). This really gave it the distressed look I was wanting. After the stain was dry I glued the two pieces together using wood glue and set aside to dry.

 

We only had one photo of my step dad from when he enrolled into the war that was the size of my thumb, I definitely needed an enlarged copy to use for my project. Next, I took the photo to a local Fed-Ex Kinkos to get it enlarged. It costs about 60 cents for an enlargement and a dollar for a print. The next step was tracing my photo onto a wood banner piece that I had painted. Using wood glue I glued my photo to the wood and after it was dry I sanded the photo to blend along with the wood. I used our photo texture cream over the photo and added some "Spice Brown" paint and ink to distress the photo.

While I was waiting for the photo to dry, I started making a star banner to go with the photo to hang on the front of the star. I painted some small stars we carry and using the rusty twisted wire we sell I wrapped my stars around the wire and added the photo in the middle. I attached the banner to picture hooks screwed into the back of the star.

And here is my finished project!! I am so happy with how it turned out. I love that is meaningful and a great way to remember him on Veterans Day. It's so easy to add a photo for a personal touch on any project. Thanks for reading my post!