Birthday gift sign...

Oh my...a dilemma.

What to give to a friend who has everything...a wonderful marriage to a great woman, a lovely home, a successful career, and all the toys he needs.

Ummm, how about a broken cupboard door? (lol)

I started with this one from our Habitat for Humanity ReStore.

That little gap in the corner is easily repaired with my trusty wood filler.

I painted it Old White, with Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint, chipped it up, designed in Photoshop,

did an inkjet transfer of the caduceus and the letters, then painted over the caduceus with soft brown paint, and the letters with black acrylic paint.

I wanted it to look like a sign from a doctor's old office in France. Eight of us vacationed together in France and Italy last fall, so I thought the French might make a more memorable statement.

I used one of the brand new Dreamweaver embossing stencils in two corners, positioning the stencil, taping it down, spreading white matte embossing paste over it, then letting it dry. Using embossing paste is as easy as frosting a cake, and I just LOVE the raised texture the paste gives to little projects like this!

Once the pasted image was dry, I repositioned it, pounced Top Boss Embossing Ink over it, and applied Stampee Embossing Powder as an adhesive, heated that with my heat gun, then applied metallic leafing over the now sticky raised surface.

Then I brushed the excess leafing off with a bristle brush, and this was the finished result:

Et voila...this is his birthday gift for the party tonight! I hope I was able to achieve a bit of an "old worldly," look, and, more importantly, I really hope he likes it, and that it doesn't end up reincarnated yet again full circle as as another junky cupboard door.

I'm partying at Time Travel Thursday, and here and here and with these wonderful decor bloggers this week.

Thank you so VERY much for stopping by. I'm SO grateful for your comments! Wishing you a wonderful week with people you love, doing the things that you love to do!

PS Sending a great big hearty Nova Scotia SHOUT OUT to Liz and to Maria for featuring my sign...thank you thank you THANK YOU!!!