DIY: Photo Letters

     This past Mother's Day, I was so lost thinking about what to get my mom. I was thinking of what I could buy her, but she's so picky. I decided to go with something homemade, since she is always into that sort of stuff. I had seen some tutorials online for Photo Letters, so I decided I would give it a try. My mom loved them, so I thought I would share my process.

     This is my first tutorial, so bear with me!

What You Need:

Wooden letters spelling out your word(s) of choice 

Photos printed off of your computer (I used black & white but color is fine) 

Scrapbook Paper in patterns/colors of your choice

Exacto knife

Adhesive Spray

Trash Bags (or something else to cover your work surface)

Pencil

Instructions:

Step one:

Line your work surface with trash bags or  paper bags, because the adhesive spray tends to overspray.

Step two:

Select the scrapbook paper that you want to use, and place it face down on the work surface. 

Step three:

Place the letters face down on top of the scrapbook paper, and trace around the letters with a pencil.

Step four:

I only used the pencil trace as a guide in case the letter moved, so I just cut around the letters with an Exacto knife.

Step five:

Once the scrapbook papers have been cut to size, set them off to the side, and set up the wooden letters on your work surface. 

Since the adhesive over sprays, you may want to only set up one letter at a time. 

Take the adhesive spray and spray onto the wooden letter from the noted distance. 

It has a really fast drying time, so be ready right away to attach the  paper on top of the letter. Although it is tacky, you should be able to move it slightly if it is not lined up. Press it down hard to make sure there are no bubbles.

Step six:

Continue the same process with all other letters, then set them aside to dry (I let them sit overnight).

Step seven:

Take your printed out pictures and cut them all out. 

Then, tentatively place them on the letters where you want them. 

Once you have done that, trace around the edges of the photos with a pencil. 

Then, pick up the photo, and write a corresponding number on the spot on the letter as well as on the back of the photo.

Step eight:

This part can be difficult, so be patient and do this one photo at a time.

Place the photo into its corresponding spot on the letter. Then, while holding the photo, flip the letter over and place it onto the table. Hold the letter in place, and cut around the protruding edges of the photo with the Exacto knife.

Repeat this process with each photo (only the photos for one letter at a time).

Step nine:

For each letter, take one cut photo at a time, flip it over, lightly spray on the adhesive, and place it onto its corresponding spot on the letter. Once you have done this with all of the photos, you can then erase the rest of the pencil marks.

Let these dry, and then you're done!

Thanks for reading!

-Grace

My Week of Music and Friends

     Even though I have been out of school for about a month, this week felt like the true start of summer. It was finally getting warm out, and I attended 3 of my favorite artists' concerts. 

     I started out this week with a Lana Del Rey concert, which I attended with my sister, Greer.  I have been obsessed with Lana for years, but I never thought I would get to see her in concert.  I may have a ton of things that I have to pay for and not a lot of money, but I decided to splurge on this concert since I had been working hard and had already saved up a bit for school, and I'm so glad that I did.

     We left pretty late due to multiple fashion emergencies, but we left with about an hour until the opener was set to start. We hit no traffic the whole way there, up until a mile before the exit where we were completely stopped for an hour and a half. That whole time we were so worried about missing the main act. Once we finally got there, we realized that we were right on time! 

     Our seats were in the first uncovered section of the Xfinity Center, but we "accidentally" ended up standing in front of a wall in the next section up hiding from the ticket checkers. Even though these seats were better than the ones we purchased, Lana still looked to be about the size of an ant. Even though we could barely see her, it was still so amazing to hear her live, and we were able to watch the video screens. 

     The next concert I saw was Nahko and Medecine for the People. My friends and I all love this group, but they never seemed to tour in our area. Right after I bought the Lana tickets, I noticed that they were playing a show in Portland, Maine, about 2 hours away! I told all of my friends about this show, and our whole group bought tickets.

     Since this concert was in a new city, my boyfriend and I decided to head there early so we could explore. We spent a few hours exploring all of the little shops, and then we went out to eat.

     We found a really cute restaurant called Nosh Kitchen Bar (http://www.noshkitchenbar.com). 

(Photo from http://www.pigtrip.net/review-b-Nosh.htm) 

     They had a really unique menu and so many things that we wanted to try. We decided to do a few appetizers since we weren't that hungry. We got Fried Pickles, and Buffalo Dusted Fries. It was so much food, and it was amazing. We also saw some other really unique items in the dessert menu, like Dunkaroos. We hadn't seen these since we were kids, so we had to order them.

     After our dinner, our friends had arrived and we went into the concert. I have to say that this was hands down the best concert I have ever been to. Everyone in the crown sang along with every word, and Nahko had such a great stage presence. He was actually really funny too, so it was cool to hear him interact with the audience.

     It was so nice to have all of my friends reunited after being so far away at school, and I can't imagine a better way to celebrate!

(It was extremely hot in the venue, so naturally all my friends are shirtless.)

(Picture of the actual set list (agghhh!!!))

     The final concert of this amazing week was Dave Matthews Band in Hartford, Connecticut. I went with my boyfriend and our friend Jason. Before the concert (somehow arrived really late to this one as well) we tailgated in a parking lot and had a great time.

     Once we got to the concert we realized that we had missed most of his acoustic set, but we weren't too upset because we had had a great time tailgating. We had lawn seats so the view wasn't great, but the atmosphere on the lawn was something I had never experienced before. Due to my activities during the tailgating, I don't remember too much of the rest of the concert, but I somehow remembered to take plenty of videos! 

(Such an unfortunate picture but at least you know we had a good time :) )

I think the best part of this concert was seeing how excited my boyfriend, Kenny, was and how happy it made him. It was also hilarious to see him dance (shirtless, yet again) along to every song. 

     Hearing the songs that I had been obsessed with forever being played live was such an unreal experience. Although it might to take a little longer to pay off school because of these few splurges, I wouldn't change any of it. To me, it doesn't make sense to live miserably for 4 years so I can save up for school when I won't be able to pay the balance in full at that point anyway. I'm not saying to stop saving for school and spend all of the money you earn on stupid things, I'm just saying don't be afraid to live and splurge sometimes in addition to saving for school. 

Thanks for reading!

-Grace