Growing in Grace: Making Name Pictures

Scripture to Live By:

Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.

The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life....... Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come. She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness. She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her. Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all. Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates. Proverbs 31:10-12;25-31

My sister's beautiful children gave her a surprise birthday/family reunion party at a very nice restaurant in Lynchburg, Va. My sister has been the glue to keep our family together. She is a very precious lady. She has been such an example of Christ's love to each of us. She is so giving of herself to the benefit of others. There are not enough beautiful words to describe her. All who know her would agree.

There were 50 family members that were present. It was such a blessing to spend this time together. We all left with some unforgettable memories. My family is so precious to me, as I can only imagine yours is to you, as well. The time we spend together is never enough. I wish more of the family could have been there.

My husband and I made the plaque below for my sister's 75th Surprise Birthday Party. It was so hard to know what to give her but I know she dearly loves the man whose name she bears, so I knew she would enjoy having their name on a plaque. She always enjoys things that her family makes for her, so we decide to make her this plaque.

Every part of the plaque is handcrafted.

If you would like to make this plaque, follow the steps below. (Even though the 'A' looks black in the picture you can see in the letters below it is really green.)

1. I began by using my Cricket machine and cutting out the letters of their name and laying them out on quilt blocks, that I had made. Then I took pictures of each letter on the different quilt blocks. Next, I had the pictures developed. I made the pictures 4" X 6".

2, When cutting out the matte for this size, I used an oval matte cutter. It doesn't matter if you use an oval or a rectangular matte cutter, the center distance from picture to picture will be 4 & 1/4 inch.

The first and last picture will be 3 & 3/4 inches from each end. Center the cut out vertically. The height of the matte should be around 8 & 3/8 inch. The width will be determined by how many letters you have.

3. For the picture fame we purchased 8 feet of molding 1 & 1/2 inch wide and 8 feet of 1/4 inch thick by 1 & 1/4 wide strip.

4. I then rough cut these pieces to just over my desired length.

The next step is to glue the thin strips to the flat or back side of the molding and flush with the outer edge of your molding. This gives you the space where the glass, picture matting and backing will lay and be flush with the back of the frame.

The next step is to miter the corners 45 degrees to the desired lengths and, also, the end pieces of the frame. Next, I clamped the frame together square and drilled a 3/16 hole across each of the corners. Next, we took the frame apart and cleaned up the ends and the holes and now we glued the ends together. Using a 3/16 dowel rod coated with glue we inserted it into the holes, this will give the frame added strength. After the glue has dried, we can sand off the rough edges on the corners. Now we are ready to paint the frame to our desired color.

We took the inside measurement of the frame to Lowe's and had a glass cut to fit the inside frame. Then we put the picture together. We cut a piece of cardboard to fit the inside measurement as our backing. We inserted clips to hold the backing in place.