Extremely Easy and Cheap

No, I'm not describing myself with the fellas (hurr hurr), that's what I'm saying about these little wall plaques that I've made a few times.

I don't know why there's a curved corner. Maybe I had something draped on the couch, whatever.

Materials: wood plaque (doesn't have to be plain, you can paint over the cheesy floral print.)
craft paint
foam paint brush
Mod Podge or other decoupage medium
picture to use
scissors

As an thrifter, I spent a ridic amount of time sorting through the piles and racks of various Goodwills, etc. I founds these two little wooden wall plaques taped together for $.99 and took 'em home figuring that I'd find a use for them.

I also hoard old books. They're often seriously cheap and contain gorgeous images. I feel like the words "vintage" and "retro" get used an awful lot. I like to use the phrase, "old-timey" mostly as an annoying habit. As in, "I love collecting old timey children's books with old timey illustrations in them!"In this case, I was going for minimalistic and scientific...the kinda thing one wouldn't necessarily expect to see on a little piece of wall art.

This 70s children's science book had lots of cool artwork. I have a little ritual before I destroy a book. First, I check to make sure there isn't a better picture on the other side of it. Then, I apologize to the old book, promising that it's pages will have a better life as part of my "art." Finally, I carefully liberate the image from it's page.
I decided the wood was a little dark for a black and white design, so I did what I end up doing with most of my crafts: I painted it green. I love greeeeen. I like turquoise, aqua, jade, mint, avocado, and emerald. I'm like Rolling Stones with my stuff "I see a wood thing and I want to paint it green..." (Look it up, kids.) I think this color is called moss green.
Once the paint was dry, I positioned my little cutouts where I wanted them to go, then took them off. Using my foam brush, I covered the green painted top of the plaque in a layer of Mod Podge, then quickly slapped my little cut up book page onto it, pressing it flat. (Dang, is this tutorial easy enough, or should I slow it down?) I let it dry like that for just a couple minutes, before adding the top layer of Mod Podge over the whole thing. If you're doing it right, your project should look like the image was practically painted right onto the wood and not like you glued it on.
Mod Podge Rocks blog  http://modpodgerocksblog.com/  is the expert on this, and she has tons of tips and ideas, so you might wanna check that out.
Those were my first easy-ass wall plaques, and I've repeated the project several times. Those little things are really easy to find and mad cheap at thrift stores. For some reason usually have prints of Hummel  figures on them which you just make disappear behind paint I know I made my high school bff some that are remarkably similar to these because she is an actual scientist. I just threw some together over the weekend, so I can cover up some wall space in my kitchen.

That picture quality is terrible. But look, it's a stove and a fridge 'cuz it's for the kitchen!

I used pictures from this awesome book.

Thanks for looking at this, people. I'm gonna get back to making half-assed stuff!