THE ALTERED FLEA: buttons

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Fabulous Father's Day Photo Canvas

Daddy. Papa. Abba. Pop. Mr. Cool.

No matter what you call him, your father is always going to be the first man in your life. The one who taught you how to ride a bicycle. The one who always tells you how pretty you are. The one you can count on. My Dad celebrated his 90th birthday earlier this year and we had a big family get-together. It was a special day. I am so proud to be his favorite daughter. Since I have two brothers and no sisters, I can say that with certainty.

Our two daughters must share the role of favorite daughter with my husband. And because he is such a wonderful Dad, we've created a fun photo canvas for him for Father's Day.

We gathered together a ~~plethora~~ whole lot of supplies including coordinating paper, paint, chipboard letters, brads, twine, ribbon, corrugated cardboard, rub-ons, and a whole lot more. And of course, a few of our favorite photos of Mr. [Mc]Dreamy.

Then we had a snack. Have you ever noticed how well crafts and chocolate chip cookies go together?

The first step is to paint the sides and edges of your canvasses. We used 9" x 12" and 4" x 12" canvas panels.

Then cut the paper 1/2" smaller than the canvas panels. Adhere the paper to the canvas using Mod Podge. Cover entire surfaces with another coat of MP. Let dry.

We wanted to create a banner to back the chipboard letters, and decided to cut it out of corrugated cardboard for a more rugged look. I drew triangles on the back of the cardboard to use as a pattern.

Make banners out of corrugated cardboard

I really like the way this banner turned out.

We thought it would be fun to add a few adjectives for "d-a-d" and came up with these words:

Dependable.

Adventurous.

[Mc]Dreamy.

Yeah, that about describes Mr. Wonderful.

We tied kraft tags to the letters with jute.

Then we layed out, moved around, and re-positioned the photos and embellishments until we were ~~blue in the face~~ happy with the layout. Before we changed our minds, we adhered everything in place. To add some interest, we layered the photos onto coordinating paper, and adhered them with foam dots to pop them up a bit.

We found the greatest rub-on that reads, "Make Life an Adventure." Perfect! We adhered a mini canvas (5"x 3") to the large canvas, and added a strip of corrugated cardboard, buttons, a wooden heart, ribbon and a king's crown charm!

To tie the canvas panels together, we used small eye hooks. I marked off 3" from either end, and twisted the eye hooks into the bottom side of the small [top] canvas and the top of the large [bottom] canvas.

Then we looped twine and ribbon through the eye hooks, tying them tightly bringing the eye hooks close together.

And here's a photo of the finished canvas.

Do you think he'll like it? We hope so.

Besides, how many ties does a Dad really need?

You may also enjoy these projects:

Graduation Photo & Announcement Keepsake

Pomp & Circumstance Grad Frame

Graduation Gift Jar

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The Shady Porch

Friday, October 19, 2012

While recently stumbling onto a yard sale, I picked up a beat-up, lonely picture frame [sans glass or artwork]. It was in bad shape. I think it was going to be tossed into the nearby dumpster as it was sitting on the side of the yard and it was already the end of the day. I offered to trade a crisp one dollar bill for the poor chap. SOLD!

I decided to take the frame out of its misery with a coat of the aqua "oops" paint I had previously used on my step stool. One light coat made the decorative frame look distressed, so I didn't even have to sand it.

I've had an affinity for everything burlap lately, so I incorporated a recently acquired coffee bean burlap sack. This one has a turquoise stripe down the center of the sack, complementing the frame's new hue.

I remembered that I also had some chicken wire hiding in my stash. So why not use both the chicken wire AND the burlap? [Double the effort? Yes, indeed!]

For this project, I took out the "big girl" tools.

[Usually, my tool kit is a bottle of decoupage and a foam brush.]

After CAREFULLY snipping the wire to fit the frame, I stapled the wire to the back, hammering the staples flat.

OK, that was easy [just kidding].

After a quick coffee break, I measured and cut the burlap to size, trying my best to position the turquoise stripe to land in the center of the frame.

I folded painter's tape over the burlap edges, making it much easier to staple the burlap to the frame, and avoid frayed edges.

Voila!

I could've stopped right there, but my "altered" state took over.

From the leftover burlap, I cut five banners, stamped them with large alphabet letters [spelling "notes"], and then stitched them along the edges to minimize fraying. Then I stitched the banners to a long piece of linen ribbon. Then sewed on a few vintage Parisian buttons (which I actually bought in a Paris flea market!)