Decorative Wall Hanging

This is my first tutorial! It was inspired by Make and Takes's post Mod Podge Magic :) (She also has a lot of adorable crafts there so be sure to check her out!)

I started out with just a few pieces of scrap wood from my mom's workshop:
Next, I had my mom cut the wood down to the size I wanted (because I probably would have hurt myself if I tried to do it):

Then I sanded the wood down so it was nice and smooth (make sure to get the edges too!):

I picked out a nice chocolate color for the base color of the wood that my mom had laying around from when she was picking colors to paint her house (doesn't it look delicious?):

Make sure to paint not only the front of the wood, but also the sides.

Next I used some stencils to add a nice design to the top and bottom pieces:

Here's what that ended up looking like:

Next I used some stencils to write "Family" on the top piece. You can write anything you want here, obviously.

Then I got some cream and red ribbon left over from Christmas and twisted it together, then hot glued it to the top...
...and the bottom pieces (you can see how this looks in the finished product)
Then I simply tied a bow on the top part (you could leave this as a loop, it may be less frustrating--it took me forever to get it even!).
After that you can add pictures to the bottom, or what I may do with my next one is glue a little clear sleeve onto the bottom part and use it to hold my menu plan for the week, schedule, etc :)

I hoped you enjoyed my first tutorial as much as I did making it!!!