Family Mission Statement

Hey there!  Like usual I dropped off the face of the planet and haven't blogged in a while.  But, that doesn't mean I haven't been busy crafting and working on our home!  I just need to post pictures and some comentary of what I've been doing.  Here's a list to give you an idea of all the things my husband and I been working on:

* motorcycle rebuild - I'm not much help with this but I did recover the seat :)
* artwork for the den
* a DIY "All Things Manly" themed birthday party for Seth
* an outdoor patio and flowerbed - Seth surprised me with this! I didn't ask for a patio or even know I really wanted one until I saw it!  Seth started on this while I was out of town and  I can't wait to take pictures and show you the progress. When it's finished I think it will be our new favorite place for entertaining.
* Easter decor
* Mini bathroom redo
* Front porch spring decor (still a work in progress)
* And our family mission statement artwork- which I will share with you today!

Seth and I had talked about coming up with a family mission statement to hang somewhere in our home a while back.  Just last week, pastor Mark Driscoll tweeted a picture of his family's mission statement.  They asked a friend who owns a sign shop make their mission statement into a sign. You can purchase the same sign for your home if you want to.  I showed Seth the sign and we couldn't think of a more perfect mission statement to describe how we want to live! But at $89 each, I couldn't afford to buy that particular sign so I set out to make my own. (Although, if you like this you might consider buying it from
here to support this family's business and well...this particular project was rather time consuming so you might think it's worth the $89.)

What you will need to make this sign yourself:

* a 12" x 24" Classic Collection Artist Canvas from Hobby Lobby- $11.99 ($7.19 after 40 % off coupon)
* 1 can of matte black spray paint. I bought Krylon Short Cuts Spray Paint - $3.27 but I would suggest purchasing one of the full size cans (the cheap kind is fine)
* 1 package (comes in sheets of 2) of Adhesive Backed Vinyl - $7.99
* a Cricut machine (borrowed from my aunt)
*the "Jubilee" font Cricut cartidge (borrowed from my aunt)
* 1 can of clear polyurethane spray- I already had this

Once you have the right materials the rest is pretty self explanitory. Spray paint your canvas black and let dry.  Plan and measure out the positioning of your letters.  Make sure to take into account the letters with a bigger font on the first line.  Cut out your vinyl letters using the Cricut machine.  Once your canvas is dry, remove the backing from your vinyl letters and stick them in the appropriate spots on the canvas.  I just eyeballed my letters and they turned out ok because the font I used is pretty forgiving.  You might want to use a straight edge or piece of tape as a guide if you want the letters to be pefectly straight. The vinyl is not super sticky so  you should be able to move the letters around a bit if you mess up.  Also, this step may be a little less time consuming if you use transfer paper instead of just peeling and sticking but I think transfer paper is another $8 so I just did it this way.  Once you have everything the way you want it, spray with a coat of clear polyurethane and let it dry.

Here's a picture I took with my phone of how it turned out.



It's not quite as pretty as the original but it did save me $70.55 :)