So this lovely, yet very plain, wooden frame had been in my studio for about a whole year, just waiting for me to give it a makeover. Over Christmas break, when I had a little time away from the office, I became inspired, and did just that:
1) I had a piece of balsa wood that I cut out into the shape of the heart in the middle. I used the paper frame as a guide. The wood is only .02 mm thick, so I could cut it with my Tim Holtz scissors just fine.
2) I then used Martha Steward Chalkboard paint to coat the heart. I waited an hour after it dried before re-painting it. I put on 4 coats of paint.
3) While the heart was drying, I used FolkArt Hot Pink paint to paint the rest of the wooden frame. I gave it 3 coats and topped it off with a coat of sparkly pink glaze. You cannot see that detail in the picture, as I have very basic picture-taking techniques and equipment. But it looks beautiful. I painted the front and back because I felt it needed a full make-over.
4) I then went to town adding embellishments. Used my Vagabond to die-cut the bird and cage out of grungeboard, which I then painted and even glazed the bird with glossy accents. I used 2 Tim Holtz tickets (dream and soar) and inked them with vintage photo distress ink (Tim Holtz) and then grunged them up a bit. There is also a mini postcard, from TH's Salvage sticker collection, that I inked with Walnut, and distressed. There is a swan sticker in the upper left corner that I powdered with baby powder on the back to remove the stickiness, so I could attach it with pop-up dots-it is from KandCompany. The butterfly on the middle left is from Recollections. I found some Pink Paisley rub-ons that I place all over the frame, including a beautiful caption at the top right that reads, "sweet little girl heart of my heart, you hang the moon and dance in my mind to the sound of giggles..." There is also some TH tissue tape on the frame. And lastly, I made a bunch of tiny rosettes from some paper Prima flowers, that I lavished all around the frame.
I will be giving this to my daughter to take back to her college dorm in a few days. The sentiment really speaks to how I see her. I will miss her. Hopefully she will get some good use out of the chalkboard part of the frame.
This is one of those projects that I wish I had made two of, because it so reflects my personal style. I hope you enjoy it, and if you are up for doing one yourself, let me know and we can work on it together.
