Handmade Gifts Mean More to the Recipient, Right?

Even if they are less than perfect.

I hope so.

Last week on Tuesday, it occurred to me that 

I had 3 nieces graduating from high school Friday night and I had nary a gift. :( 

My first thought was to get them gift cards since it was so close to graduation. But I really didn't want to.

I wanted something more original that would mean more. So, I began some serious brain-storming/ Pinterest searching. I'm not really sure when or where the idea occurred to me, but I decided to make them each wall plaques. 

Hand painted ones, no less. 

Yeah, what on earth was I thinking?

It's now Wednesday; graduation is Friday. I have never hand painted a sign in my life. I also have a small baby who hasn't been feeling the best. (Teeth?) But I didn't think about all that; all I could think about was how neat it would be to give them something hand-made by me. 

{Snicker. Snort.}

Little did I know what I was in for.

Due to the time constraint, I did not achieve the level of perfection I would have liked

 but here they are. This is the first one I did.

This one is made from wood I salvaged from an old crate.

The crate was here when we moved here and I intended to use it for

something sometime. Unfortunately, my sons thought it was junk

and 'dismantled' it. These were the only pieces I could salvage.

Along with the one end that had the advertisement on.

The second one looks like this.

This one was a cabinet door I had in the garage. 

I should clarify things. These graduates are sisters; two of them adopted.

Since these were all going into the same house, I wanted them to all be different.

I tried to consider the tastes and personality of the graduates. The girl this one

is for is more immature/girly. The sign looks a tad more childish than I was

going for but it matches her bedroom.

The third and final one:

This one I used an open barn wood frame from Hobby Lobby and used

wood reclaimed from the old shed in the back of the house.

I whitewashed it to freshen it like I did the barn door/bathroom door.

The spacing on this one really bugs me. They all have issues with the letter/line spacing

but this one is the worst. Otherwise, I like this one best.

For all of the signs I used graphite paper to transfer the letters onto the wood.

I then used paint pens to paint the letters.

So that was my projects for last week. 

I want to show you my finds from Springfield on Saturday

but I haven't had a chance to photograph them yet.

I hope to later this week.

Linking to: Wow Us Wednesdays

From the Farmhouse