Happy Birthday Surprise and rusty horseshoe lamp.

Last year one of our Grandsons turned 22.

His Mom wanted to make it a special day for him.

 

He was a little shy about making a big deal of his 

22nd birthday. 

but ... 

Mom wanted to tease him a little.

Her idea was to buy some wooden block letters to decorate the table, only to find they were too expensive.

Bravely, I told her I could make some letter blocks ...  

I only had a couple of days so I had to work fast. 

I printed out Happy Birthday Justin on my computer.

I chose the Birmingham Tilting font ...

 love this font for signs.

I cut the letters apart to determine the placement and the size of block that I needed. 

I used reclaimed boards from a sign crate that were 3/4" thick and 6" wide ... the 3/4" would stand up nicely ... I cut them down to 5" wide.  Height and width was varied to fit the letter or letters. Some were one letter to a block ... up to as many as three letters to a block. 

I painted the blocks white with 

Zinsser primer.

 

 

 ... and the back with Valspar Chalkboard paint.

I used green painters Duck tape to protect the white sides.

 I  

Letters were cut with my Silhouette Cameo stencil cutter on black contact paper. I did not stencil them, I just pulled the letters and placed them on the blocks. I had to mark each block to remember what letters went where. 

 

Since this was being seen from both sides of the table, 

I had to think of a way to decorate the back. 

    I chose meaningful, birth to graduation pictures to add to the back of some of the blocks. Printed them out in black and white on my printer. I used Mod Podge to attach them but that was too cloudy, so just ended up using spray adhesive. 

 

On this tall block, we wrote his birth date.

Justin came into a ready-made family of three brothers 

and one sister.

 On another ... time of birth was on the back of the Y.
 ... this is the back of Bi.r.t.h.d.a.y


Of course, he did not want everyone to know it was his birthday and was a little embarrassed with his Mom making a fuss over him.  

Well ... much to our surprise ... Justin was very impressed 
and pictures were enjoyed by all. 

Purple ribbon was all I had, but that worked out with the colorful table decorations.

 

The next week-end, they had twin men coming to the Ranch to hunt and celebrate their birthday, so she used the Happy Birthday blocks on a side table in the dining room to welcome the birthday boys. 

Our Daughter bought this rusty horseshoe lamp with a rusty- pierced-tin-wonky-shade at a garage sale for 50¢. 
I cleaned the rust, painted it hand-rubbed bronze ... rewired it and attached the lamp cord to the back of the horseshoes so that it did not show. It made a really cute lamp and just perfect on that table. She added a huge fall acorn decoration that really looked nice.

 

Thanks for visiting and I hope you have many happy birthdays.

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Linking to:

Revisionary Life...Thrifty Life Thursday    

Before and After Wednesday...The Dedicated House

 

Fluster Buster Creative Link Party 

 

Coastal Charm Nifty Thrifty Tuesday

Inspire Me Tuesday

Dwellings ... Amaze Me Monday

Suburbia ... Tuesdays Treasures

Knick of Time Tuesday