A Mother's Day plaque even the kids can make

In this project I offer two wonderful wooden plaque designs that you, or your older kids, could make for Mother's Day.

 

Both of the wooden plaques shown for this project are easy to make using a small scrap or pine, or other type of wood. And you can use a router or Dremel Trio for the edging - or leave as is if you don't have these tools.  

After routing, use 180- or 240-grit sandpaper to smooth the entire block and prepare for painting.

For the first option we routed decorative edges on our piece of pine and then sprayed it with two coats of Rust-Oleum 2X in satin French Lilac. Visit your local Builders Warehouse to see the full range of Rust-Oleum colours and choose the one you prefer.

 

 

Use a laptop and PC printer to print out the wording for the plaque. The wording should fill up the plaque as much as possible. Add extra detail with images or freehand drawings. We included a couple of curly butterfly designs on our plaque.

Place the design on top of the wood and press down hard to transfer the wording onto the block.  The harder you press, the more visible the wording and the easier to work with. If you are using a hardwood, rub the back of the design with a soft pencil and then press down over the top to transfer the pencil onto the wood.

To engrave the wording we used a Dremel MultiTool and 107 engraving bit. For an older child or teenager, using a Dremel Flexi Shaft attached to the tool makes engraving much easier. 

Work slowly to engrave each letter and design. You can move the block around so that you are comfortable as you engrave. It's really easy to do. If you have never done any form of engraving before, use a scrap piece of wood to practice on before you do the main project. 

Now all that is needed is to hang a picture hanger at the back, in the centre of the board. And there you have it... an engraved plaque that mom can hand anywhere! 

This is our second plaque, and it was made in a very similar way to the one shown above, but without using spray paint. 

Again, we routed decorative edges to the board and transferred our wording onto the block. 

The wording was then outlined with a fine-point permanent marker before we applied Woodoc Gel Stain to tint the wood in a warm Antique Oak colour. Once you have finished engraving, you can use a small paintbrush and gel stain to touch up any areas where you may have gone over the lines.

Using a Flexi Shaft attached to our Dremel MultiTool, we started with the dragonfly design and gently engraved this.

To ensure that our lines were perfectly straight, a steel ruler helped to guide the engraving lines.

 

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