How to Mod Podge Cardboard Letters

I am currently on my way to Ohio for my baby brother's wedding! *Tear*

Today I'm going to share a project I did last week. I found this fleur de lis at hobby lobby, and I knew right away I wanted it on my wall! 

I started painting before I took my "before" photo! Sorry! 

The first thing I did was paint the edges of the cardboard with a cream colored craft paint. 

I also overlapped the paint a bit onto the front, just in case the scrapbook paper doesn't line up perfectly(if I aimed for perfection I'd never get anything done!).

I just used a basic foam craft brush

I then carefully traced the design into the back of my paper:

And then I cut it out! Make sure you leave yourself a little wiggle room when cutting!

I plays around with a few different papers:

But ultimately I liked this one the best!

And I then whipped out my #2 best friend, Mod Podge!

I applied a thin layer under the paper;

You will have a few minutes to move the paper around and get all the bubbles out before it starts to set. I let it dry for about 10 minutes and then applied a second coat on top. 

After it had completely dried I trimmed the edges with my small scissors, and sanded lightly. Because of the odd shape, it was hard to get a perfect size and some of the edges ended up looking like this:

So then I whipped some of this out:

And decided to try my hand for the first time at glazing! I applied the paint thinly with a paper towel, and then wiped off the excess quickly. 

In hindsight it might have worked a little bit if I had watered the paint down just a tiny bit. But it still turned out good! It camouflaged my rough edges and made it look aged!

I actually really love how the paint turned out uneven and different, it looks more antique that way! My next challenge is finding a letter "G" to decoupage and hang on my gallery wall with it!