My Boss' son is graduating from High School this weekend. So for the graduation party she wanted to put some pictures of him on Wood (like the video below). She saw it on Pinterest. So since she was spending most of her time with family and getting the house ready - this became my job! :) I was very excited since I too had seen the video on Pinterest and thought is was a GREAT idea! So I was up for the mission...

I started with 10 blocks of weathered wood that she had her hubby cut from the wood in the barn. Then we realized that we didn't have the Gel Medium that it tells you that you need. Hmmm. She searched Hi and Lo and still nothing - so when we were about to scrap the idea and do something different we remembered that the new tenant next door was the art teacher for the high school. And guess what?! She had some! Yippee! I started by wiping all the pieces of wood down with a cloth, measuring and printing the pictures. Next step was to apply the Gel Medium. So far so good. Pressed the pictures, color side down, rubbed out all the bubbles, let dry over night.

Arrived to work this morning very excited about the next process which was to wet the backs of each of the pictures with water and rub off the paper to reveal the image. Easy Peasy - Right? I mean the gal in the video makes it look like it takes no time at all.

After trying the first one, then the next, and then the next one after that, I realized something very important... this was not going as easy as the vid shows. Thinking to myself - I must be doing something wrong. So I rewatched the video, then I read the comments below the video - and I saw one comment that said "if all the white won't come off then just get it as best as you can without pealing off the picture, then apply the mod podge and it will take care of the little white areas." Awesome! So that is what I did...

I was so excited this worked! So next I printed out all the pics that I had applied the wood grain layer to. Set out my wood blocks and applied a thin layer of Matte Mod Podge to the wood. Next I placed each of the pics on the wood blocks, and smoothed out all of the bubbles. At this point, you can either wait for the underlayer to dry OR you can do what I did (because I can be impatient) and just coat the top of each of the pics with a thin layer of Matte Mod Podge. I then set them outside to dry. Here is the finished product. What do you think? Personally I like it a lot and I like the way it still looks a little weathered but with a whole lot less hassle!

Here is the wood grain photo I used as the wood grain layer >> Download <<

This is our new deck. We made it out of 13' siding pallets that we got from a lumber yard. We put three of them together and reinforced some of the wobbly boards to make it a little more sturdy. We finished this a couple of weekends ago, but tonight was our first time having dinner on it.

Some of our friends are kinda shy, so I will just post the pics of us :). My hubby also got our hammocks out of the garage and Petey decided that he wanted to joinme on it. Of course once he was up there he wasn't so sure about it - lol.

One of the tree branches that my hubby cut off the tree last weekend, we have turned into seating - it wraps around the outside of the deck.

We still have a lot if work to do around it, but I am so excited to have most if the heavy lifting mostly done.

The Bear Paws - those are my favorite! When my hubby and I got married (almost 12 years ago) we honeymooned in Big Bear, California. We bought our first set of Iron Bear Paws and every year since we have tried to buy a set. Although after we pulled them all out of the garage we realized we are a few years (sets) behind. This is only part of them. The rest will go throughout the yard as a paths.

This is what our deck looks like a few months later. I built some flower boxes for the side of the deck so Pete would stop sleeping in the flower beds :). We also put some planters behind the deck to hold our herbs and a few pepper plants. We are really enjoying sitting out on the deck with each other and with friends. We still have a few more little touches to make, and will update it to this post.

I was craving pizza tonight and didn't have dough or crusts made so I whipped out my Multigrain Crispbreads from IKEA, added sauce and some toppings, placed in the oven to melt the cheese and Walla - Mini Pizzas - so yummy!

Each crisp is only 40 calories each with 3 grams of fiber a piece (with out toppings)

The first project was to dig a space for the pallets to be "buried". We thought it would look better then laying them on top of the surface and looking like we threw pallets in our yard.

Once we dug up the space, we lined it with cardboard we got from a local furniture company (free). That way we were less likely to get weeds growing through. We scattered some dirt over the cardboard and placed the pallets on top. This step was frustrating - lol. Once we would get one in place, the next one would be taller or shorter so we would have to adjust the height of the dirt accordingly.

Next step was to fill in the sides of the boardwalk with dirt. We bought some solar lights, at Walmart for .97 each, to light the path at night.

Our next step is to plant marigolds along the edge of the boardwalk for color and pest control for the garden.

There are still a couple of spaces that need filling - on the pallets - mainly for reinforcement. But we can do that as we go along.

The total project cost less than $10!!