Family Tree Subway Art {Tutorial!}

If you happen to recall, Brad and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary this month! The traditional present is wood, and I am nothing if not traditional. Every year we say "Let's stick to a $40 budget on presents" which leads to "Let's just make our vacation our present" or "Let's just make all the new plants we bought for the front yard our present". Aren't we super romantic?

But this year I actually made Brad a present! And it was only completed two weeks after our anniversary! Not too shabby! I saw this family tree poster on Etsy and about had a heart attack when I saw the price. I loved the idea but couldn't (and wouldn't) spend that much money on a poster. So, cute little ol' crafty me made one for about $10!





I love how it turned out and love the distressed look of it.

So, for those of you like me who are on a budget (and may have been called a cheapo at least once before in her life), here is how you can make one for under $10!

1. Using Microsoft Publisher (or program of your choice!), create the subway artwork. I used my parents, my in-laws, where we met (at Texas A&M...WHOOP!), our current street address, and our wedding date. I did 'insert word art' so that way I could stretch out the words to fit the page as needed. Then save as a jpg.



2. I uploaded this pic to Walmart's online photo store and ordered it as a poster. I think I ordered an 11x14??? It cost about $8 including shipping. You can save $1 to get it sent to the store and pick it up yourself, but I would rather pay that extra $1 as to not have to take the boys into Walmart just to pick up one little poster.

3. I had my hubby cut a piece of plywood we had in the garage. Don't worry- he still didn't know what this was for and this was his only task in the whole project!



4. Using white paint, I painted the sides of the wood and a little bit of the top of the plywood. I correctly assumed the board and the poster wouldn't be the exact same size and I didn't want wood showing through.


(I took this pic just in case you didn't know what paint and a paint brush looked like. You're welcome!)



5. I painted a nice, thick coat of Mod Podge on the board and then put the poster on the board. Then I let it dry.

5a. I actually put mod podge on the top of the poster as well, but that was a big ol' mistake! So, don't do that!

6. It is time to distress it up, baby! I used a power sander and sanded all over the poster to distress it. Brad's sander must be super powerful because it only took about 3 swipes and I was done. I think if I had just a piece of sand paper it would have taken a little elbow grease to get it to look like this. (Remember part 5a? All the mod podge got sanded off immediately. You can see all the pieces to the side of the board on this picture. So, that was kind of a waste of time!)



7. I once again put a coat of mod podge on the top of poster once I finished distressing. Once it dried, I put on one more layer just to make it a little more smooth to the touch. (These pictures are from when I added the coat of mod podge before sanding, but you get the idea!)





8. And....done!



So, to total up the cost:
poster: $8
paint, wood, mod podge: on hand from old projects

TOTAL: $8.

WOWZAS!!!!!!

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