The Evolution of a Photo Panel

This photo is one from my surprise birthday party earlier this month. What sweet friends I have! What you may not have noticed in the picture is up behind me on the mantle -- it s a photo panel that I designed last year and gave to my family for Christmas. A photo panel is either wood coated in acrylic, or metal, and makes a wonderful display in several sizes. I just love ours! 

Well, I had a product credit toward another photo panel that needed to be used, so I decided that I would make a special one for myself.

I thought it would be fun to show my design process from the beginning, to the final outcome. And, even though it is called a photo panel... I didn't plan to include any pictures on it! I looked through my digital artwork collection to see what embellishments and papers I wanted to use. I knew I wanted colors that go with our other decor since I would have it in the kitchen. I also love hearts. And these little birds were so cute! So that was my starting point.

I found some other embellishments I liked and played around with the center shape. I needed more area in the middle than the first big heart had provided. I liked the paper with the writing, even though you can't read it.

I decided the first background looked too solid, so I swapped it for a different patterned paper. I also went with a simpler shape in the middle and tweaked the other elements. I am liking how this looks!!

Now I am starting to get excited because I think it is looking really cute. I love the little bunting and the scallop backing gives it a nice touch.

From the beginning, I knew I wanted to include scripture. If you go back to the first draft, I actually had scripture running around the outside of the heart. Since I also liked the look of the paper with writing, I decided I could make my own. So I added a bunch of my favorite verses in a variety of fonts, and it was done! I love it!!!

And here is my photo panel on my kitchen counter. So pretty!

Oh, did I mention that I can use it as a dry erase board?!? Acrylic photo panels can be written on with dry erase markers! This makes a great place on which to write my list of tasks for the day.

I am so excited that I can post my nightly menu and stop all those repetitive questions from the kids about what I am making tonight! This just makes me happy. What could you use a little dry erase board for? You know what else makes me happy about this? I used host credit toward the product credit, so all I paid for my fun little project was tax & shipping!