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.
... 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
Inspire Me Tuesday
