Family Scrabble

My cousin got married last week & I always try to find/come up with a cool idea for a gift.  I don't have a lot of money to spend but want to give something that is unique, fun & memorable without having to break the bank.  So...I came up with this idea.  I think it is unique, at least I think so because I haven't seen it before.
When I first started trying to think of a gift I looked on-line, as I often do for ideas.  The first thing that came up is all the signs that are made for couples that have their last name on it & "est. 2011" date on them.  Then I found how a few people had put up saying on their walls using over sized Scrabble tiles.  So I thought why couldn't I come up with something to put the two ideas together.  Over the next week of playing with different variations I came up with this idea.  A Family Scrabble board w/ the "est." date in the middle of the board.  Then add their first names & as their family grew they could add the names of their children as they came along.  Cool, eh?  At least I thought so.
I started out with a 13x13 T-shirt display frame, you could use any size frame as long as it was some kind of a display frame for the depth & that would be big enough to fit all the names into it.   I got mine at Micheal's who had a great sale so they only cost me $4 each.  I then pulled out a 12x12 white piece of card stock, and drew lines to mimic the squares on the Scrabble board, spacing them 3/4 of an inch apart.  One thing I did wrong was make the squares, exactly square.  Scrabble tiles are 3/4" wide, but 3/4 & a tick high.  Does that make sense? I found this out after I had already glued the titles to the board & couldn't start over.
I got on line & looked up the happy couples wedding registry as well as the colors that where used on their invitation to pick out the color pallet.  I used a brown marker to draw the lines, then used pencil crayons to color in the squares to mimic the pattern on the Scrabble board.
Then I got on my computer and made up the "est." date to put on the middle of the board, playing with colors & fonts until I found the one I liked the best.  I used MicroSoft Power Point, but I'm sure you could use whatever program you are most comfortable with.  After printing it out on my color printer using regular paper & cutting it out, I glued the "est. 2011" in the center of the board. I just used a regular glue stick to do this.
I found I didn't like the way strokes in the pencil crayon looked, so I carefully erased each colored square until I could no longer see the strokes but still had the color.  It gave it a softer look, I think.  I then colored the inside of the frame backing with black marker as the 12x12 card stock didn't fit perfectly into the frame.  Once the marker was dried I glued the card stock to the frame backing, being careful to center it.
I didn't have time to order the scrabble tiles right from Hasbro so I just picked up a basic Scrabble game at Wal*mart, but if you have time you can order 3 different color tiles directly from Hasbro for around $6.50 (+shipping) per 100 tiles.  The trick is that this takes 8 to10 weeks, but this is by far the best way to go as it's more cost effective & the boxed game only has 1 "H" tile.  If you have need of more than one you're in trouble.  Luckily I didn't need more than one.

I then started playing with how to best put all the names together.  As I did I found the blank title & found that it solved the problem I was having to get their last name & "family" together.  I then went through all my stickers a & found a clear sticker of a heart that would fit nicely on the blank tile, which I put in between their last name & "family".  This made it come together to look so cute.  Then I used their full names to put into the game as I had a hard time building from the main line w/ just the names they went by, plus it would give them more to build off of latter.
After I had the tiles set the way I wanted I very carefully hot glued each title to the card stock game board.  Make sure that is where you want them, because once they are glued there is no getting them off.  This is when I found out that I made the squares too small, but I know for next time.
I cleaned the inside glass of the frame & dumped the extra titles into the frame.  That way as their family grows they can add the names of their children without having to find where they had put the extra titles, keeping everything together nicely.   I put the back on the frame and look over my work and really like the way the extra tiles looked at the bottom.
This idea would also be a great idea for your own home or as any kind of a gift.  It would be fun to work at fitting all the family members names in.  I think I might just have to do that with my own family.  I really like the way it turned out.  What do you think?  Let me know because I would love feed back on this idea.