Painting words on wood, the easy way.

I can't even tell you how much I love our Easter baskets. I bought them at Michaels a few years back. I was tired of buying an replacing the cheap kids baskets every year and this was an easy way to not have to do that ever again...hopefully.

The only problem was that they were plain. The kids never knew who's basket was who's. They needed a name plate.

I went to Michaels, my not so guilty addiction, and found some adorable wooden plaques.

I painted them a basic white. Exciting, right? And yes, I painted them on my children's lap trays. Back off. I use what's available to me.

I personally have horrible, horrible handwriting. I don't even like writing grocery lists because my handwriting is so...embarrassing. I will attempt to show you what method I used to make the names look more presentable.

I'm missing some pictures, but if you can follow written instructions you'll be ok. Trust me.

On my computer (I used photoshop) I found a font that I liked and that was thick enough for me to outline and paint. I typed up the boys names into the size I wanted and printed them out.

I laid the name, yup right side up, on top of the plaque.

This is where I missed a picture step, but it's hard to take a picture when you have one hand holding the paper down and one hand tracing the letters. Forgive me.

With a firm hand, trace over the letters, making sure to press into the wood really well. I had to go over mine a few times in a couple places where the wood was harder and the imprint didn't show up.

When you're done you should be able to see the name imprinted into the wood. I tried to get a good picture of one done, but it didn't work out so well. If you look reaaaaalllly close you might be able to see the "n" and the "o".

From there all I had to do was fill in the imprints. Easy Peasy. I used paint, but I'm sure it would work out just fine with a variety of other things (marker, puffy paint, glitter glue, etc).