personalized plates.

a sharpie + an oven + a plate.  betcha never would've guessed this was a winning combo (okay, unless you found it on pinterest like i did).

i did this little project a few days ago.  i think i've sufficiently established the fact that i love plates on a wall.  i've been working on decorating our kitchen lately, and have an empty space over our stove i've been wanting to fill.  i also have a china oval platter from my grandmother that i thought would fit the space just perfectly.

since it had lots of emptiness in the middle, i thought it would add a personalized touch to write something on it... obviously "my cup runneth over" is the name of my blog... but it's also been a saying that's meant a lot to me over the years.  one of my favorite movies is "hope floats" and the grandmother character in the movie would always use this phrase whenever something just warmed her heart.  i loved that.  i lived with one of my best friends my senior year of college and we would pray together every night before we went to bed (when she didn't fall asleep on me.  ha!  love you, le).  we would often use movie lines when talking about how much we loved being friends.  "kindred spirits" from anne of green gables and "my cup runneth over" because we were so thankful for each other.  i know, so cute, righhhht?  (okay, totally nerdy, but we'll go with cute instead.  we really were cool, i promise...).

and now in this season of life, "my cup runneth over" represents feeling totally blessed by jesus.  no, my life is not perfect.  and yes, i've had some crappy things happen.  but you know what?  i have so much to be thankful for.  even in the middle of some pretty tough stuff.  after losing my dad this past fall, i started claiming the verse john 10:10: "the thief comes to kill, steal and destroy, but i come that you may have life; life abundant."  it helps me when i'm fearful, when life is hard, and reminds me of the greater purpose for which i am striving.

back to the plate.  here's an easy how-to

personalized plate

* thin sharpie
* scrap paper
* plate

- preheat oven to 350.  practice drawing your saying on a piece of scrap paper.  this helped me also gauge the dimensions as well.
- using a thin sharpie, write or draw on your plate.
- bake at 350 for 30 minutes.  when time has elapsed, turn off the oven, and allow the plate to stay in the oven until it's cooled.

voila.  a personalized plate.  i want to get colored sharpies and make birthday plates for the girls and some special holiday ones too!  but this one will go above my stove.  i spend so much time in the kitchen that i wanted this there as a reminder on the hard days or on the mundane ones... that god is good... all the time.

let me know if you make one!  a fun project with older kiddos, too :)