Last year was our fifth (!) wedding anniversary, but with a baby on the way and a basement in the middle of finishing, we decided we didn't want to spend a lot of money on gifts so I figured I would make something meaningful for Lawrence instead of buying something. After much deliberation, I decided to make some artwork for our livingroom with a quote from the lyrics of our first dance at our wedding reception (which incidently was Bon Jovi's "You Had Me From Hello").
I got some thin (1/4") wood vaneered plywood and had the friendly folks at Lowe's cut it down to 3'x4'. Then I took some 2" vinyl letters (note: I also bought 3" but they were way too big by the time I laid it all out) and spelled out the lyrics on the plywood once I had marked off the lines with painters tape. I did do a mock-up on the computer with a similar font so I could try to figure out the line breaks, but it ended up being trial and error as I decided to move around the break between two of the lines once the letters were all on.
After the letters were in place I took off the painters tape and took the whole thing outside to give it a coat of spray paint. Actually, I used two colors of spray paint, one darker blue and one lighter blue/aqua, to give it some variation. I could have given the whole thing a base coat first, but I wanted the wood grain to show through the letters.
Once it was dry, I pulled off the vinyl letters and TA DA.
I didn't give it a clear coat over it or finish off the edges with trim, but those are certainly some options if you're wanting to achieve a similar but different look.
It's found a home on the mantel and I love it. Better yet, Lawrence loves it, too. At least that's what he told me on our anniversary when I gave it to him.
