Craft: How to Make a Wood Family Portrait

by Beckie Farrant on February 14th, 2019 | 3 Comments »

What is the best kind of craft project? The free kind. I found some old fence slats in my neighbors trash a few months ago that I thought I could repurpose. Seeing the beautiful weather beaten slats made me rush over and ask my neighbor if I could have them. She looked at me strange and said “go ahead.” Free wood for the taking? Woohoo!

How to Make a Wood Family Portrait:

Supplies:

Old fence slats or pallet wood
Chop saw
Measuring tape
Screws
Drill
Martha Stewart Paintbrush Set
Plaid Pouncers
Folk Art enamel paint in Aqua
Vinyl with transfer tape or contact paper
Matte Mod Podge

I took some of my neighbor's fence posts and cut them down into 16” length pieces. I used 5 slats to form my board and then screwed in two slats on the back to form one continuous board—the silhouette backdrop—using wood glue between the slats to provide extra stability.

I had my Photoshop guru friend make me a black and white silhouette of this picture.

Using my digital cutting machine (you could use contact paper and an exacto knife, too) I cut out a vinyl cutout of my silhouette and transferred it to the fence boards. Then I used matte Mod Podge to seal the edges. I was concerned that since the board was so rough, my stencil wouldn’t stay in place when I went to paint it unless I did that.

Once dry, I applied some Aqua Folk Art Enamel paint with a Plaid pouncer.

While wet, I removed the vinyl. Then I took a Martha Stewart paint brush and smoothed out the paint to really push it into the wood.

I let it dry and hung it on my wall. A simple and quick way to preserve that moment in time (when your kids will still hold your hand).

How have you preserved memories with your family portraits?

Beckie Farrant is a tri-blogger at Infarrantly Creative, Knock Off Décor and Roadkill Rescue. Beckie likes transforming the old, discarded and unused into beautiful and usable décor for her home. You can connect with Beckie on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.