I posted this a few weeks ago on Time Out For Women, and wanted to share it with you here.
A few years ago, I listened to a very inspirational talk in general conference given by Elder Gary E. Stevenson of the First Quorum of the Seventy. In it, he asked us to take a virtual tour of our homes using our spiritual eyes. He asks, “As you walk through the rooms of your home, do you see uplifting images which include appropriate pictures of the temple and the Savior?” Ever since then, I have tried really hard put up lifting quotes or images in each of the rooms in my house.
With three kids under the age of five, my home isn’t always “neat and orderly.” But when the temper tantrums rumble or as I am chasing my 3-year-old around the house trying to get some clothes on him, I know that I can go in to any room in my house and gently be reminded of the gospel in my life and what it means to my family. Those reminders often help me to put things in perspective.
One of my favorite reminders of peace and serenity is the temple. I used one of my favorite crafting methods of decoupaging images on wood, it’s an easy and inexpensive way to create something that has special meaning to you. 
To make it:
1. Find an image of the temple you like (I took this picture while my husband and I were visiting Nauvoo recently).
2. I wanted to make it look a little more antiqued, so I did this by uploading my photo to Picmonkey, and then clicking on the “textures” option and selected the “smudge” texture.
Original picture:
After smudge texture in Picmonkey:
3. Print your photo on thick card stock.
4. Cut a piece of wood the same size as your printed out photo, paint the piece of wood white. Let it dry.
5. Use a matte mod podge and spread glue on the piece of wood. Place the photo on top. Making sure to press down to get rid of any bubbles. Let it dry.
6. Use a coarse and fine grit sandpaper and sand the edges.
7. Use brown paint to make the edges look a bit more antiqued. Let it dry.
8. Apply a very thin coat of mod podge on top of the photo to seal it.
I also made this art work for my daughter’s room. I used the same technique as above, but instead of the picture of the temple, I created this subway art in Powerpoint. There, I was able to create different text boxes and change the styles, colors and sizes of the different fonts.
