![Blessings-Box.jpg Blessings Box: Write down something you are thankful for every day. Save them in a shadow box and re-read them at the end of the year.](http://lh3.ggpht.com/-4fittV1kbmM/VGWq19CS59I/AAAAAAABJJU/qtOa9aS7_aA/Blessings-Box.jpg?imgmax=800)
You know how much I love the Ikea “as-is” section with it’s 50% off cabinet doors and scratch and dent furniture. Well, last time I was there I picked up a couple of shadow boxes for 50% off. They were scratched, but I knew I could repaint them so they'd be good as new.
![scratch-and-dent-ikea-frame.jpg Scratch and dent ikea frame](http://lh3.ggpht.com/-Mq1sna5o5Fc/VGWpMwSSyKI/AAAAAAABJHs/Pk9mrgkfPg4/scratch-and-dent-ikea-frame.jpg?imgmax=800)
Then, tonight a friend of mine posted this on Facebook:
I loved the idea. So I got out my Silhouette and got to work. I googled phrases about blessings and I liked this one:
It turns out those are hymn lyrics from 1897 but unlike yesterday’s mantel inspiration, I have can’t recall ever having heard it (either at church or on Little House on the Prairie.)
Anyhow.. I was going to print it out in a single font, when I stumbled upon this free printable from Lil Luna.
![blessings-printable.jpg Blessings printable](http://lh5.ggpht.com/-54pUKOBuuWs/VGWpTJcrI3I/AAAAAAABJIE/pBL7hpHtDtA/blessings-printable.jpg?imgmax=800)
I loved it but it wasn’t going to work on the Silhouette with that chalkboard background. I upped the contrast in photoshop, and made the letters white on a solid black back drop. Then I realized that not all the letters are vinyl friendly (specifically "name them" and the two “ones”) so I replaced those with a new font and then inverted the entire photo. This was the result:
![inverted-printable-for-vinyl.jpg Inverted printable for vinyl](http://lh3.ggpht.com/-7a5JCVo0HFE/VGWpU_PyZoI/AAAAAAABJIM/fSAQ3JTzkF8/inverted-printable-for-vinyl.jpg?imgmax=800)
I loaded that into my Silhouette software and traced it. This is what the cut file looked like (sorry I’m not going to offer the file because this word art wasn't mine.)
![cutting-chalkboard-printable-out-of-vinyl.jpg Cutting chalkboard printable out of vinyl](http://lh6.ggpht.com/-9ezr891jaxo/VGWpW2UR6CI/AAAAAAABJIU/a72MVA37gNc/cutting-chalkboard-printable-out-of-vinyl.jpg?imgmax=800)
Once I cut and weeded black vinyl, this is what I ended up with (weeding those top letters was quite a feat!)
![blessing-car-with-vinyl.jpg Blessing car with vinyl](http://lh3.ggpht.com/-P0aOYBmgnzY/VGWpYYRcTEI/AAAAAAABJIc/x8jGjNHbHCQ/blessing-car-with-vinyl.jpg?imgmax=800)
I originally just flipped over the paper that was behind the photo mat so that the background would be white, but I didn’t like that. I didn’t think my slips of paper containing my ‘blessings’ would show up. I grabbed some glitter spray paint (this stuff is AWESOME! I’m not sure why I’ve never used it on projects before) and painted the paper.
![spray-glitter.jpg Spray glitter](http://lh6.ggpht.com/-VeVZ3jrqYQU/VGWpaYtfAbI/AAAAAAABJIk/bPn9vAnYW3U/spray-glitter.jpg?imgmax=800)
Here is a close up of the vinyl words against the gold background of the box:
![count-your-blessings.jpg Count your blessings](http://lh5.ggpht.com/-m1TApqCDqms/VGWqyHBfuMI/AAAAAAABJJE/nJOXMcVW1Iw/count-your-blessings.jpg?imgmax=800)
![counting-blessings.jpg Counting blessings](http://lh6.ggpht.com/-AluKb_iKlR0/VGWq0CSUE-I/AAAAAAABJJM/y-pOmj1iMqA/counting-blessings.jpg?imgmax=800)
![Box-to-write-down-blessings.jpg Blessings Box: Write down something you are thankful for every day. Save them in a shadow box and re-read them at the end of the year.](http://lh5.ggpht.com/--rk37HAZUmE/VGWpb8bAZMI/AAAAAAABJIs/uZJlPapT16A/Box-to-write-down-blessings.jpg?imgmax=800)
![BlessingJar.jpg Blessings Box: Write down something you are thankful for every day. Save them in a shadow box and re-read them at the end of the year.](http://lh3.ggpht.com/-XDh9JFfzkN0/VGWsULpBPaI/AAAAAAABJJs/5nm9RQPVpmQ/BlessingJar.jpg?imgmax=800)
![shadow-box-of-blessings.jpg Blessings Box: Write down something you are thankful for every day. Save them in a shadow box and re-read them at the end of the year.](http://lh3.ggpht.com/-WVmv-zKcW8E/VGWpdwMyhiI/AAAAAAABJI0/3-Ps6EV7qT0/shadow-box-of-blessings.jpg?imgmax=800)