May 31st was a sad day for the Podorsky family as it was the one-year anniversary of the passing of my dear Mother-in-law. Shortly after her death, my sisters-in-law and I began the emotional task of helping my father-in-law go through her belongings. Being of Polish descent she was raised in a traditional Catholic faith and had many religious statues, relics and prayer cards. In fact, every purse we went through had dozens of such mementos which we divided up among our families.
I kept my stack of prayer cards in a box and once in awhile pulled them out to admire the artwork or to recite a prayer found on the back of each card. I recently decided to display the cards for others to admire by creating a collage wall plaque. I also included in my wall art a medal and crucifix (from a broken rosary) that belonged to my mother-in-law to give the piece some nice dimension and additional meaning.
Below are step-by-step instructions on how I created this very special piece.
(Of course, you don’t have to use prayer cards…..use anything that speaks to your heart: post cards from your travels, hand-written recipes, love notes, baseball cards, vintage photos or maps, leaves, pressed flowers, stamps ……. be creative!!!)
I first selected the prayer cards I wanted to use for my wall art. I cut some of them out to create diverse shapes and laid them out in a square configuration.
I decided the cards I wanted to use would work best on a 7 X 7 piece of wood and had my handy father cut a board for me with his skill saw. He sanded the sides and slightly rounded the corners as well.
Next, I painted the board with a metallic gold paint. If you’d rather not use paint, you can choose a lovely colored paper (solid, or patterned) from Cut Card Stock to coordinate with the paper images you’re working with. They actually have a sale right now on their Pop Tones Papers. I always use their Kraft Chipboard as my go-to behind-the-scene paper in my projects. I used it underneath my wood while painting and adding the resin in a later step.
