Since moving to Meridian, Mississippi, I have mostly been limited to my current stash of craft materials. You see, here, there’s no Michael’s, AC Moore, Jo-Ann Fabrics, Hancock Fabrics… really no craft store that I am aware of. There is a nearby-ish fabric store in a neighboring town, but I haven’t been there yet.

So for this project, I took myself down to Lowe’s. Craft materials from a home improvement store? Sure, when you’re making a plaque for your sewing room!

My Lowe’s materials: A wooden address plaque and 3 metal letters (for South, East, and West, near the mailbox numbers).

So this is the bare-bones layout.

First, I painted the background a lovely shade of turquoise (the same one I used to match my Ikea Amorf bedspread).

And then I painted the edges… the bevel a pretty cream color, and the edge a nice muted coral.

After that, I sketched out my design in pencil. (I laid out my SEW letters so I could arrange everything properly.) A needle, button, some pins…

…more pins, another button, and a spool of thread.

And painted everything in, using the same color pallet I used on the edges. (I did mix the cream and coral for a lighter shade of coral to use on part of it.)

For the super-thin black lines, I used a fine-tipped Sharpie. I’m not too handy with super-tiny paintbrushes so Sharpies are good.

See how it’s coming along? I added more Sharpie detail on the buttons and thread, too.

I marked the letters’ placements with pencil-dots where the screws would go, and then screwed each one in. The wood was surprisingly hard to penetrate!

But I got through, and everything was finished very quickly!

So… just a pretty reminder of what my machine over there is for! And made with materials from the home improvement store. Imagine that!