DIY Instax word of the year wall plaque + Giveaway

DIY Instax word of the year wall plaque from Dear Handmade Life

By: Nik Vandeventer

For the past few years instead of choosing a New Year’s resolution I have chosen a word of the year. A word of the year is supposed to be an intention word, something that you want to manifest in yourself or your life. Well, this past year I did neither of those and now we are six months into the year, no better time to start than now, right? I chose the newish, made up word, WERK. From the Urban Dictionary; To do something to an exceedingly excellent capacity.

As someone trying to run two creative businesses along with many other gigs that pop up along the way, this word just speaks to me! Plus it’s fun and motivating for me personally. 

I used this project as an opportunity to go adventuring with my friend Heather & my FUJIFILM Instax® Mini 70

Once I decided on the word we went out searching for the letters to photograph. This was fun but also challenging, like a cool scavenger hunt! I tried to find letters that were isolated like the ‘R’ that was on a door of a building. But I also wanted to get creative with it so we used Heather’s hands for the W, also a callback to the 90’s ‘Whatever’! The ‘E’ was lines on the ground in a parking garage, instead of using the obvious choice of the E in the Exit sign which was right above it.

DIY Instax word of the year wall plaque from Dear Handmade Life

Theres a bit of a learning curve if you’re a perfectionist like me and reallyyyyy want to get only one letter from a word in the shot, if you don’t care or actually prefer the look of more in the shot then you won’t have an issue. This is all totally up to you and how you want your finished product to look, there’s no wrong way to do it, have FUN with it! 

FUJIFILM INSTAX® CAMERA GIVEAWAY!

We’re giving away three FUJIFILM Instax® SQUARE SQ10 and three FUJIFILM Instax® Mini 70 cameras! To enter to win one of these cameras, just leave a comment at the bottom of the post letting us know your word of the year or one of your resolutions or intentions for 2018. *Leave your comment below by August 1, 2018 and we’ll enter you in the contest. Be sure to leave your email address in your profile so we can contact you if you win!

-Nik V.

WHAT TO GET:

DIY Instax word of the year wall plaque from Dear Handmade Life

-Your FUJIFILM Instax® Mini 70 photos that make up your affirmation word.
FUJIFILM Instax® Mini Film 2-Pack
-Gouache in the color/colors of your choice (I Used Reeves)
-Wooden plaque/board (size will depend on the length of your word I used these bark edge boards from Walnut Hollow
-Paintbrush, I used a large flat brush to cover a big space quicker
-Paint palette
-Cup of water
-Vegan leather or suede cording in color of your choice. We used this one from Love + Lemon Craft Co.. You can also use any string/yarn/ribbon you have lying around too! Again length will depend on size of your board, it needs to be long enough to tie on both sides of the board and hang from the top, my piece was about 12 inches.

WHAT TO DO:

1. Head out on an adventure with your FUJIFILM Instax® Mini 70 camera!

DIY Instax word of the year wall plaque from Dear Handmade LifeDIY Instax word of the year wall plaque from Dear Handmade LifeDIY Instax word of the year wall plaque from Dear Handmade LifeDIY Instax word of the year wall plaque from Dear Handmade LifeDIY Instax word of the year wall plaque from Dear Handmade Life

2. Choose the color and/or colors you want to use. I wanted to make my own shade of pink to go with my office decor so I chose to mix violet, red, white & peach. Use the water to thin the color to desired shade and mix until you’re satisfied with your color!

DIY Instax word of the year wall plaque from Dear Handmade LifeDIY Instax word of the year wall plaque from Dear Handmade Life

3. Paint your board! I decided to do more of a color wash instead of needing the whole wooden piece to be opaque. I also chose to paint the bark edge here because I like the aesthetic, but you could also leave it natural.

DIY Instax word of the year wall plaque from Dear Handmade LifeDIY Instax word of the year wall plaque from Dear Handmade LifeDIY Instax word of the year wall plaque from Dear Handmade Life

4. Let the board completely dry, this shouldn’t take too long especially if you only did a color wash. Then tie your cord to one end of the board, double knot it for extra durability. Tie it the same way on the other end, I kept my knots in the center so the board would hang evenly on the wall, you can test yours out and move the knots around accordingly.

DIY Instax word of the year wall plaque from Dear Handmade Life

5. Hang your masterpiece on the wall and arrange your word. Marvel at your awesomeness and look to your art piece anytime you need a little boost of inspiration 🙂

DIY Instax word of the year wall plaque from Dear Handmade LifeDIY Instax word of the year wall plaque from Dear Handmade Life

Bio:
Nik is a maker, day dreamer & potty mouth who loves cats, coffee and craft beer. She is a self taught hand embroider and will DIY pretty much anything she can get her hands on. She is currently pursuing her passion for photography, you can see her work here www.nikvphotography.com . She lives in Long Beach with her husband and her three awesome cats (that she can’t shut up about).

DIY Instax word of the year wall plaque from Dear Handmade Life
DIY Instax word of the year wall plaque from Dear Handmade Life
DIY Instax word of the year wall plaque from Dear Handmade Life

10 Comments

  1. My word is “BLOOM” because although I have “grown” I feel I have a lot to learn about myself in order the reach my full potential.

  2. My biggest resolution is to better my health mentally and physically for my family. I want my kids see that mommy used to be happy, full of life and goals. I’m slowly getting there! I’m starting to go out and socialize, work out and eat cleaner. I would love to see my year progressing through pictures.

  3. Laugh is my word of the year. Finding the joy in life and everything I do that’ll make me laugh.

  4. “SOMEDAY.” Yes, I know some people can apply it to mean never, but I think if it as the possibilities that it may bring. Its those possibilities, the hope OF that I like about “SOMEDAY.” Its not a YES or NO..just SOMEDAY – I will…..

  5. My word for the year is Breathe. I take care of my 13 month old son and I’m also handling aging parents with illnesses.
    I use “breathe” to take a pause to center myself during much chaos and high anxiety periods of time.

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