Two wooden plaques

It was my son's thirteenth birthday on Thursday, so I made him a non-traditional birthday card in the form of a wooden plaque. I used a piece of MDF base that I picked up on Ebay and a set of wooden letters from The Works. I stuck them down with tacky glue, added a couple of strips of drywall tape (imported from the US), gessoed the whole thing and then painted it with acrylic inks. This is what it looked like at this stage:

I finished it off with some gold Lumiere paint, that I dry brushed on top of the letters and I also added a couple of cabochons that harmonized with my colours. My son loved it and said it was the coolest thing I'd ever made for him. Awww! This is what it looks like in its completed state (it has some photos and sentiments on the back):

But that's not all! I was on a roll, so I decided to alter my husband's wooden Man Cave sign that we had bought him for Fathers' Day back in the summer. I always thought it needed altering - the original colour was an unsightly red and white - not at all manly!

I simply black gessoed the whole thing and added several shades of lumiere paints on top it. Oh, yes, before that I also added a strip of the same dry wall tape I used for my son's plaque. The results made the sign look metallic and practically unrecognizable from its original form.

 Happy weekend! I'm planning to take my son shopping today to spend his birthday money. If you want to see previous birthday projects, just click on the birthday label below this post.