Tag: Frame

Surprise Gift

It never fails that a moment in life comes when you forgot to get someone a gift or you received a last minute invitation. What do you do?

There’s a couple of things that I keep in my craft room all the time: fabric, ribbon, card stock, picture frames, paint, beads… You get the idea.

We had the privilege of meeting our neighbor’s parents, who came for a visit from halfway around the world. It’s amazing to see how much you can connect with people, especially when you don’t speak the same language. And even more amazing when you find out that you share some similar interests and find commonality.

It’s even more special when you receive an invitation to be a part of celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary.

I’ve been married for over a decade. So much has changed in the world since that day. I tried to think of how much the world will change in another 50. It blows my mind.

What is it like to celebrate a 60th anniversary in another country–one you may or may not have thought you’d be in when you were younger?

Of course I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to celebrate and honor a long lasting relationship like this. And while thinking about how to give a meaningful gift, with little personal history, and something that’s not burdensome for when they return home, I chose to focus on the memories. Celebrating the last 60 years of their memories together and giving them a memento of this trip, this moment in time.

Advertisements

My husband had taken a group picture at the end of a visit where we had them over and made for them their first American meal. I chose a picture because it travels well and is minimalistic for those who gravitate to that way of life. But I also couldn’t pass up giving some flowers because it’s something that brings happiness in the moment.

So for this quick to gather gift that’s pack full of memories and meaning, here’s an idea for you to consider the next time you need to find a gift in under two hours.

Pick a photo of you and the other person from your phone and send it to a local place that can print it out in an hour.

While that is processing you can stop by a shop, florist, road side stand, farmer’s market, or garden and gather some flowers that have meaning.

In this instance I chose sunflowers because with our guests, they saw the sunflower I had grown from seed and we talked about sunflowers and sunflower oil for quite some time. Sunflowers may not be their favorite flower, but in this gift, it’s a nod to something we connected with in the middle of a language barrier.

It just so happened that at home I had a vase on a shelf that I was saving for a time to reuse by gifting to someone, and I had some fabric with sunflower print on them.

As you notice here, sunflowers can be awkward if they’re not bundled. So I decided to bundle the flowers with a strip of cloth.

For a professional look of wrapping a bouquet, you want to first trim down the fabric you want to use into a strip. No matter how nicely you cut, the fabric will always fray. To give a clean edge, you want to press the strip of fabric. First, fold and press the raw edge. Then you’ll tri-fold and press the fabric into a wide ribbon. Now the edges won’t fray on you and you didn’t have to sew.

To make this wrap, you want to put one edge of the ribbon between the stems. Then you can wrap it tightly around the bouquet without the ribbon slipping on you.

When you get to the end of the ribbon, you want to fold the ribbon up at a 90° angle. The tuck this final edge down behind the wrap, between the stems. If the wrap is snug, it will hold the ribbon in place without using tape, pins, glue, or any other fastener.

The beauty of making a wrap like this is that the person you are gifting this to can use the fabric after the flowers are long gone. If this person is sentimental, they will no doubt find a way of repurposing and reusing this strip of fabric.

Don’t forget to use a small scrap of the fabric to make a card that matches.

Here, I took a piece of 8.5 x 11″ sheet of card stock and trimmed along the short edge a strip 4″ wide. This strip I folded in half to make a blank card that is 4 x 4.25″.

Using the left over sunflower fabric, I decided how wide of a ribbon I wanted to glue to the front of the card. You can be as precise as you want to be. I chose to wing it and just cut the fabric into a small strip.

This time I had to be careful about the edge because there’s no room for a folded seam. This fabric print looks good with a frayed edge, so I saved time by just removing the stray threads and embrace the fray. (As opposed to if I need to have a very clean edge and have to cut a straight edge.) Now the sides and bottom of the card need to have a straight edge, so I leave this ribbon large and will cut it down after I glue it to the cardstock.

For gluing the ribbon down, you want to decide where you want to place it and mark off the area. You will need to liberally apply glue to prevent fraying on the card, so drawing a glue line is very important. Make sure that where you draw the line will be hidden behind the ribbon, so make sure the line is lower than where you want it. Apply the glue and spread it evenly across the whole section, even over the edges. If you don’t put glue on the edges, the fabric will lift from the cardstock.

Gently lay the ribbon on top of the glue and make any adjustments that you need. When you are satisfied, take a scraper or plastic card, place it in the middle of the ribbon and press it to the edge of the card. Then place the scraper/card in the middle and press down in the opposite direction. This will secure your fabric to the card and remove any air pockets that may have been present.

Now that your ribbon is secure, you can flip the card over. With a pair of scissors, trim off the excess fabric.

I trim from the back because I can see exactly where the edge of the cardstock is.

The blank card is now ready for you to write you message on.

By now, your pictures should be ready to pick up. Once you have them, you can place them in a picture frame and you’re ready to bag or wrap your present.

From this gift given, the part of the gift that meant the most was the blessing that I wrote inside the card.

In today’s world, a blessing spoken over another person is something that’s not talked about. But it’s the most powerful gift that we can give another person. And to have those words writing for the person you’re gifting to read over and over again is life changing.

If you are unfamiliar with a blessing, it’s what you tell someone that you see in them now, but you also what you desire for their future. Instead of “I hope you have a happy birthday” or anniversary, I tell the person what I want to see in their lives for this coming year or the years moving forward.

In a time where people are struggling to see their purpose in life, why they matter, the most important thing you can give a person is a vision of something to look forward to. And the best part about a blessing that you speak over a person is that it’s not something that can be bought. It shows the person that you see them, you value them, and that they have a purpose to live for.

Whether you’re looking for making a meaningful gift on a tight budget, don’t know what to give a person, need an impactful last minute gift, or any other reason, know that you can speak into a person’s life and it means more to them than anything else you give them. So no matter what your gift giving situation is, know that a blessing from you can be the most impactful thing that you can give another person.

Never underestimate the power of your words.

And don’t hesitate to gift a blessing!

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner to receive weekly emails containing promotions, digital file releases, and future blog notifications.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.

One response to “Surprise Gift”

  1. Roy Avatar
    Roy

    Hi to every one, tthe comtents prsent aat this web pzge are really remarkable foor peolle knowledge,
    well, keerp up the good wotk fellows.

    Like

    Reply

Leave a comment

Advertisements
Advertisements
Advertisements
Advertisements

Bless This Garden

This year I’m working in concert with others in a garden. (I am so excited for this!) If you’re as busy as I am, you can imagine how quickly things slip through the cracks.

After hitting my local dollar store, I found some pieces that are going to make an inexpensive tool that doubles as home decor, all the while keeping tabs on what’s been done.

With these I decided to make a magnetic board where anyone tending the garden can quickly mark what they did.

I know the galvanized finish tends to overtake everything. So with the galvanized frame and banner, everything gets lost real quick. Not to mention that the frame was a really bad fake wood. To dress all this up a bit and minimize the galvanized look, I painted the frame and banner black.

I forgot to take a picture of the banner painted in flat black chalk paint (the same paint as the frame). It looked too minimalistic for my taste, so I took the transfer tape (which I used to apply the vinyl text) and put it straight onto the paint. Some places lifted the paint quite easily. But to get the distressed look, I scratched the tape

The magnets needed a little something extra. There are so many things that could be done. I have children and they’re helping with this garden and they’ll also be marking what we do when we work, so I went into kid zone and painted the magnets with acrylic paint and did all the colors.

If you want to keep minimalistic, pick your favorite color.

Love things that sparkle, glue on gem stones or use glitter.

What about texture? Glue on fuzzy pom poms, baby pine cones, large seeds or nuts… literally whatever catches your imagination. Maybe you have a farm and want to use small farm yard figures and animals. (I wish I had these in my craft room!!!)

Something that is great about using the galvanized banner is that the extra magnets can be kept on the banner so you can add stickers, personalization, more tasks, or a note section in the blank space on the bottom.

And then while typing I decided to go a different direction.

I pulled these out! Last year I made carrots out of my corn cobs. And I brought out the wooden beads from my drawer (which I also got from my local dollar store).

With the beads I removed them all from the string they came on and noted how they tied off the end bead to keep them all on the string. This “knot” that they used was how I spaced the beads further apart on the string.

Once I made those changes, the colorful “polka dots” needed to change. The gold and green glitter styrofoam balls simplified the overwhelming colors.

Even with the new modifications hanging, I’m not satisfied with the final color scheme. And sometimes that happens when you’re creating. You start building from the image you see in your head and make a change here or there and an earlier idea you loved just doesn’t work anymore.

The black isn’t working anymore. I loved the idea to begin with because it was a nice basic color that goes with where I was going to hang this. But it’s just not working anymore.

Advertisements

First thing first, I need to lighten up the banner. So I’ll be distressing it heavily so that the majority of the galvanized metal will show through. With the addition of the carrots, which obviously take the spotlight, I can bring out a lot more of that metal and the metal is not going to overtake and make everything else hide.

But before I do that, I need to decide what I’m going to do with the frame and that’s going to take a few days of looking at it to see where I want to go. At the moment, I’m leaning toward the idea of painting on white striped and creating a plaid hand painted design on it. If I go that route, I might keep the banner predominately black still and incorporate that same design element into parts of the banner.

Stay tuned to see what I finally decide!

Advertisements

And I’m going to leave you here in this moment just because sometimes the right thing is to take a step away from a project and let it tumble around in your brain. You don’t always have to have the answer right away. And you don’t always have to have things done in an hour.

Perhaps it’s convenient to have an idea presented to you in a finished state.

But I’m going to leave you here with your own thoughts. Because I know someone has that inner voice screaming, “You need to ____!”

Go ahead and leave that comment below.

Or better yet, use that idea to make your own magnetic board for your daily tasks, your children’s chore board, a classroom helper sign, your regular “Honey Do” list, or that board that I didn’t mention but you just got the idea for.

And when you’re finished, send me a picture so that I can see what you came up with.

Happy Crafting!

Want to have the cut file for Bless This Garden, click here.

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner to receive weekly emails containing promotions, digital file releases, and future blog notifications.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.

Leave a comment

Advertisements

Repurposing A Frame

(This post contains affiliate links to products. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links.)

It never fails that you find something very cute to give something, but it comes with non-removable art that just not fit with what you want to gift or make for yourself. Maybe it is art that isn’t your style. Maybe it is a design that’s so cheap and is exactly the reason why you find it at the dollar store.

For example, I found this cute frame.

I found that the size was cute. And I absolutely loved the beaded clutch like handle. Best of all, I loved how the frame and handles were very much reminiscent of unfinished wood. This was the perfect blank slate that I could do so much with!

The negative mark was the non-removable art. Truth be told, I almost put this back on the shelf.

But here is how I turned this dollar store product into the perfect blank to make a personalized present.

First you paint over the non-removable art

Especially if you like the current state of the finish of the frame you’re working with, you want to grab some masking tape and tape off the frame to protect it from the paint. It doesn’t matter how handy you are with a paint brush, you really do want to take the few extra minutes to tape off the frame. It just takes an unexpected sneeze or someone sneaking up behind you, knock on the door, ring of the phone, or that your brush slips.

Apply the tape on the inside edge of the frame. Cut down the tape to the corner of the frame, so you can fold the edges over.

The tape that I used here was Green Frog Tape.

Once the frame is taped off, take your paint of choice and cover the original art.

I used Waverly Cashew Chalk Paint. Because this color is so pail, it took about 4 layers to cover up the dark original colors. The important thing to remember is that you always want to paint with thin layers. First they paint dries quicker. Second, you can apply cleaner layer lines.

If you choose to put on a thicker layer of paint to compensate for dark colors, it just takes forever to dry before you can add successive layers of paint.

Once the paint dries…

You have the choice of what you will do next. You can apply a stencil to paint on your new design. Or there is the option of hand painting a picture.

If you are done with all painting options, you’ll want to remove the tape.

Removing Tape

Depending on who you talk to, there are a handful of different theories on which time to remove the tape.

OPTION 1:

Some crafters say, remove the tape while the paint is wet. Yes, this method prevents peeling up the paint that you just laid down. The problem I have with this method is that if the paint is wet on the surface, it’s wet on the tape. So you have to pay attention to the paint on the tape as you pull it up:

  • Paint ending up back on your blank because of the tape flopping over backwards (or paint side down) on your frame.
  • Paint ends up on your fingers. Sometimes you forget, or think you avoided paint transfer, and then you find out later you had a small drop of paint on your finger and now you have a paint finger print.
  • Paint ends up somewhere else on your, like your shirt or pants.

OPTION 2:

Other crafters advise that you remove the tape when the paint is dry. This method is great for preventing all options of potential paint transfer. However, the problem with this method is that sometimes the paint adheres to the tape and pulls up off your project when you remove the tape. This is especially the case when the original surface is smooth or plastic.

OPTION 3:

A third group will tell you to wait for the paint to mostly dry. This is the happy medium to the first two options.

I’ve never been able to make OPTION 1 or 3 work for me. If there’s any wet paint, I’ll somehow find a way of getting it on me or transferring back onto my project. So my go-to is OPTION 2, wait for the paint to dry.

TIP for OPTION 2: right before you remove the tape, take an exacto knife, and run the blade along the bottom of the masking tape all around the frame. This will effectively separate the tape and paint.

What if my paint strips off with tape removal?

Have no fear! Take a breath and don’t panic. This is an easy fix.

The first thing you’re going to do is build back up your layers of paint on the surface where the paint stripped off.

TIP: To create the illusion of no paint stripping, keep from this new set of corrective paint layers from overlapping on to the original dry paint that remained intact.

Once you’ve built back up the layers of paint that had peeled off, you’re going to add one more layer of paint over the original and new paint. This will cover over any potential seams in the paint.

The best of all is that if you are going to add any decal over this paint, it is possible for the decal to cover over any potential seams. If you’re using this as a shadow box, the items you place in front of the painted back ground will cause enough shadows to distract from the seams.

This is an example of where one less layer of paint can show the difference of your paint patch job. Make sure to do the same number of layers, plus an additional layer over both original and new paint.

Adding decals over the background paint with transfer tape

I want to mention one more potential problem you can face, with paint peeling, with a project like this. Whether you’re adding vinyl or a decal with a clear piece of transfer tape, you will want to be mindful of this transfer tape. Even if the transfer tape has low tack, it can still find a way of holding the paint more than the paint is holding on to the project surface.

The way that I have gotten around this problem is that I think of the transfer tape ONLY having contact with the vinyl or decal, and hold those elements in their place for application. I go out of my way to NOT press the transfer tape down onto the paint.

Instead, what I do is gently place the design down on the painted surface so there is absolutely no adherence. The bonus to this is that you can use a weeding tool, palate or other tool to nudge the design center (or any other location) on the frame. Once the decal or vinyl is exactly where I want it placed, I only press down on the decal/vinyl with my finger. The pressure from your finger is enough to get the decal/vinyl to adhere. And once your elements are all pressed, you can then peel off the transfer tape without it pulling off your paint!

Can’t find a frame like this, but want to make one?

I have no idea if I will find this beaded frame again at my local dollar store. In fact I would be surprised if I ever did. There’s something about the cute things in that store chain, that you pretty much only find in stock one time.

The good news is that this is an easy frame to create!

Originally this frame has a 4 x 4 inch work space. But you can select any shadow box of any size.

You can make the wooden bead clutch handle by using a thick jute twine and stapling it to the frame.

Yes! This handle is literally stapled to a mini shadow box frame.

If you want a supply list, to make your own frame, here are the items you will need:

  • Shadow Box: 4×6 Frame, 8×8 Floating Glass Frame , 8×8 White Shadow Box, 3-Frame Set
  • Jute Twine
  • Wooden Beads: 16mm (Thumbnail size), 20mm (US Quarter is 24mm)
  • Staple Gun (if you choose to use a standard desk stapler, make sure that you use several staples on either side of the twine. The twine can be reinforced by using wood glue and gluing to the shadow box.)
  • Scissors
  • Paint/Stain (optional–if you want something other than unfinished wood)

I hope you have just as much fun as I had making this Affirmation Gift!

The Baby Affirmation cut file used for this project can be found in my shop here. To personalize with the child’s name, just select your favorite bold font and place in the provided blank space.

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner to receive weekly emails containing promotions, digital file releases, and future blog notifications.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.

Leave a comment