Live, Laugh, Love - Shabby Chic Wall Hangings

Hi ya everyone - Melissa here from MelissaMade coming to share a little project with you!  I'm going to be at She's A Sassy Lady and The Bug Bytes today!  So I have to take time out to thank Sheila and Pam for letting me share with you all today!
I started my project with these three little plaques I bought for $1 a piece at my local craft store that's going out of business!  First, I painted the edges with white acrylic paint.  Once it dried I sanded the edges up a bit for a more distressed look.

Next, I chose these FABULOUS papers from the Butterfly Garden Collection and measured my plaque to be 5 1/4 inch across.  I cut the papers on my paper cutter to this size.

I needed to punch wholes in my paper before adhereing.  The easiest way to do this is to place my paper where I want it flip the plaque over and draw the circles through the wholes with a pencil.  Then I remove the paper and use my crop-o-dile to punch the holes.  I used my ATG to adhere the paper making sure the edges of the paper were COVERED with adhesive so no edges would peel up.

I grabbed my Tim Holtz weathered wood distress ink, my clear acrylic block, and my Tim Holtz clear stamps from the Visual Artistry collection.  I coated my stamps and placed the swirls in different places on the paper.

I then chose the bird and stamped the same in the bottom corner of each plaque.

I placed my plaques to the side and picked up my Gypsy!  I used the Mothers Day Bouquet cartridge and the Gypsy font cart to make flowers and the lettering for Live Laugh and Love.  I chose more papers from the same collection as above.  I glued the letters together with some Tombo glue and allowed them to dry.

I then made flowers by using the little ball tool to slightly curl the flowers downward.  I layered two flowers using my Glossy Accents and sliced a small whole in some for a tiny brad.  For others I used pearls to make the center - placing a large one in the middle and little ones along the outside.

I added a few pearl accents to the plaques and a shear ribbon through each set of wholes for hanging.

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial. I love comments and encourage you to ask questions if you have them!  Please stop by my blog, MelissaMade for more fun projects!