Baptism Gift for Calla

I knew my niece Calla's Baptism was coming up, yet I procrastinated....and by the time I found the custom gift I wanted to send her, it was too late (3-4 weeks turnaround, whereas I had 3-4 days). Since time was not on my side, I decided to try and do it myself...so....inspired by bonnielecat's gifts on Etsy, I gave it a go:

front of handmade plaque

1. I ran to Michaels and purchased a 6"x6" unfinished wood plaque. dark brown paint, chalk paint, and a beautiful, sparkly cross (I just love Michaels!)
2. Then I ordered cool, vintage-like typewriter letter stamps and a brown ink pad from Amazon Prime (I also love free 2-day shipping).
3. I painted the plaque dark brown, let it dry
4. I painted the front with the chalk paint, let it dry
5. I glued on the cross, let it dry
6. I practiced the stamping on paper, then stamped out the message "god bless calla". It was a little wimpy, so I carefully went over each letter twice...trying to perfectly align the letters....I did pretty well, I think.
7. I found some brown bumpers and a picture hanger in my supplies, so I attached those to the back
8. I found a nice border online, then used that to create a little sign with baptism details on back
9. I also had some old "All-Saints" tissue paper and twine, wrapped it up and it's ready to go!

Honestly, I would have rather ordered it from the artist bonnielecat's Etsy shop, because her gifts are way more beautiful (and I probably spent about the same amount of money). At least I had the joy of making the gift for Calla, and will get it to her closer to her Baptism (and now I have a really cool vintage style typewriter stamp kit!)

detail

back of handmade plaque

packaged up and ready to ship out

I love my new vintage style stamp kit