Name That Name

Do you remember the first picture?  I talked about how I made this for our family room in this blog post last year.  I love how all the shots came from items around our house, but sometimes that is hard to pull this off if you are making a gift for someone else.  My daughter-in-law, Katie, wanted to make a name sign for her sister's birthday.  We searched Pinterest and found a link for thousands of free (personal use only - not for resale) alphabets at a Leo Reynolds' flickr site.  Wow.  What we loved about this collection is all the color and variety!  The black and white one I did has its place, but the colored letters at the Leo Reynolds' site...oh, my!  Katie picked out images to spell out SMITH, and printed them out on photo paper. Next was to figure out what to do about a frame.  That is the hardest thing about these long and narrow name projects.  The frame size isn't exactly standard, and custom frames can get a bit pricey!  We happened to duck into the local antique store in Cumberland, and there, in the way back room, we found a stash of big wooden frames, from $6 to $10 each.  They were a good width, but a bit too tall.  Carl and his miter saw to the rescue!  He cut down the frame, re-nailed it, and went to the George's Ace Hardware and had a glass cut for $3.  Katie used some spray glue to tack down some textured fabric for the background, and then glued down the name photos.  She polished the old frame with some citrus wood polish to clean it up a bit and give it a subtle glow.  So cool!  She then made the other words to make signs for her office.  The letter photos can be printed off in different sizes, and can be opened in a photo editing software to further re-size to preference.  I happened to use Elements, but I am sure anything you have would work.   I want to make a "relax" for our master bath.  The hardest thing about this project will be to decide on which image to pick for the letters.  Love.  Jerilynn