Framed Last Name Decor

One of the projects that has been on my to do list FOREVER has been one of these.  A Frame with our last name and established date.  I’ve thought of many ways to do this, but when I sat down to finally do it, this is what I came up with.

If you follow me on Instagram, then you’ve probably seen this.  My sister helped me figure out the placement for the frames etc. on this gallery wall.  I spray painted them all to match the colors I’m using in the kitchen, and then hung them up.  After they were all hung, I was worried that it looked too much like Halloween, so I posted on Instagram and Facebook to see what others thought.  I’ve decided to get the pictures put in all of them, and then see what I think before I go changing them to a different color.  So this is how it is for now.

I started out with this empty frame.  This frame/window is one that I bought from Cabela’s years ago and it came with a fabric art piece that was all different kinds of apples.  It hung in my kitchen for a long time (I decorated with apples) and now that I’m changing things up, I decided that I wanted to take the art out of it and use the frame for something else.  I took the cute hardware off the frame and gave it a coat of spray paint.

Once I had the frame all ready, I opened up my Cricut Craft Room, and designed my vinyl using the  Stamped, Doodletype, Opposites Attract, and George & Basic Shapes cartridges. Then, using my Cricut, I cut out my vinyl.

Once I had my vinyl cut, I separated the the negative vinyl space from the space I needed to keep.  (I tried to take a picture of this step, but all you could see was gray.)

Next I cut out and applied my transfer tape.

Then carefully peeled up the image.

Found the center point, and put the vinyl on.  To get the vinyl to stick well, you can use a credit card, squeegee type tool, or my favorite is a pampered chef scrapper to get it nice and smooth.  When you pull the transfer tape off, you’ll want to pull it slowly at an angle.

And then you are done.

I can’t believe how long I’ve had this project on my to do list.  It took all of about 30 minutes to make from start to finish (but my frame was just ready and waiting for it).  I wonder how many other 30 minute projects I have sitting around! 🙂

Do you have an “established” sign for your family that you display?  I can’t wait to get the pictures printed up for the rest of the frames so I can share the whole wall with you, along with the rest of the kitchen that I’ve been updating.  Hopefully I can share all of that before too long.