Eternal Love

On Saturday I attended a bridal shower for my niece Taylor.

Here is the beautiful bride to be. I just love her to death. She is more like a daughter to me than a niece.

So for her shower I wanted to make her a gift. I wanted to give her something that she knew came from my heart.

Now you know how I love my letter art. So I thought I would make her a sign that would mean something to both her & her fiance Michael.

They will be getting married in the San Diego Temple on August 14th where they will be sealed as husband and wife for not just time here on earth, but for all eternity. Their marriage will be eternal. So ETERNAL was the word I decided to use for their special sign.

Here is the finished sign. And because I am such a procrastinator, I made it Saturday morning. Right before going to the shower.

How did I make this? I'll show you. If I can do this, anyone can. All you need is a camera, a printer and a little imagination.

First you need to look at everything to see if you can find a letter somewhere in the shape.

See this iron scroll work? The end looks like an "E".

So you take a close up photo of the portion that makes your letter. And now we have an "E".

Next I needed a "T"

This is a plate rack that hangs on my kitchen wall. See how the railing in front looks like a bunch of "T's"?

I just took a close up & like magic, a "T".

Next I needed another "E". But I wanted a lower case version. It really doesn't matter if you mix lower case with upper case, but since I had two E's in this sign, I wanted them to be different.

One of my patio chairs looks like it has a lower case "e" on the back.

Yup, I was right. I did have to lay the chair on the cement to get this photo.

Next I needed the letter "R". But I couldn't find another shaped like an "R" in anything around my house. So sometimes I cheat a little & use actual letters from something else.

Like this Merry Christmas glitter sign. I just took a close up of an "R".

And got this "R". I love how the glitter gives it texture. Luckily I already had this letter from photos I took last winter. But I had not used it yet in a letter art sign.

"N" comes next. But "N" was a hard letter to find at the last minute.

Luckily I have this apothecary jar full of letter balls. And look, the "N" was right there front and center. I didn't even have to dig through all the balls to find it. It was meant to be. And yes, my patriotic decor is still up. Got a problem with that?

And here is the result for "N".

Next comes "A". The only thing I already had for "A" was an Eiffel Tower. But I wanted to try and find something else. So I was at Target on Saturday night & came across a fold up chair in the garden department.

The side view of the chair looks like a letter "A". So I snapped a quick pic & was done. I forgot to take a photo of the entire chair but you get the idea of what it looked like.

And finally I needed the letter "L".

This glider bench was where I found my "L". Can you see it?

I'll give you a better hint? It's down here.

Did you figure it out? If you use your imagination you start seeing letters in most everything.

Once you have taken your photos. You then upload the photos to whatever photo editing software you use. I use Picasa. It's free.

Once uploaded to Picasa, I crop the photo to whatever size I needed. In this case 4" x 6". I then make the photo black & white and add a little tint to make it darker. I then print it out on white card stock, cut it out & place in frame. I actually tape the back of the photo on top of the display paper inside the frame. That way you get the photo positioned in the right spot. Plus it is easy to remove & change out the letters to change up the sign.

This particular frame came from Kohl's last year. The positioning of the openings are a little skewed. But that makes it more fun.

Kohl's has been a great source for finding frames with numerous openings for making these letter art signs. Just be sure to wait until they are 1/2 off. I've even found frames at Walmart that work. You could also use a separate frame for each letter if you wanted.

And here is my niece after she opened up my "Eternal" sign. I wish I had snapped more than one photo as she is making a funny face in this photo. Doesn't show her true beauty or gratitude.

Here is a better photo of Taylor with her fiance Michael. Aren't they a cute couple?

And one final look at the sign. My niece loved it and so did everyone else at the shower.

Have you priced this kind of sign? They can be quite pricey. Since I already had stuff around the house & yard I could photograph, and I already had the frame, all this cost me was my time, a few pieces of card stock and some printer ink. And we can't forget a whole lot of love. This was the biggest ingredient in this project. But we all know that I have a lot of love to give, so it was a pleasure.

Thanks for taking the time to look at my letter art transformation. Now if I can do this, you can too. Now get out there and find some letters and make your own, or if you want, you can borrow mine. Be sure to let me know if you do, I want to see what you make. I'm noisy like that.




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My flower ball knockoff

Updated 6/15/10 to link up with the Dollar Store Challenge over at The CSI Project.

Remember a couple of days ago when I showed you this flower ball that I almost bought at Tai Pan Trading?

I loved the green color. But it was $12.97. Which in realty is really $13.00, and not $12.00 as my hubby reads it.

Isn't it fabulous?

I was so tempted to buy it even though it was almost $13.00. I even put one in my shopping cart. It stayed there for my entire trip around the store.

But before it was time to check out, the frugal part of me talked me out of it. Thank goodness.

Because looky at what I have now!!!!
My frugal knockoff version. In the same pretty green color. And I made it all by myself!!!

And mine cost me $3.00. Not $13.00. Take that Tai Pan Trading!

I already had the Styrofoam ball. I picked up a bunch (about 15) around Christmas at the thrift store for $1.00. Yesterday I went to Dollar Tree & picked up 3 bunches of these green flowers. And since I am not a flower person, I have no idea what these flowers are called. All I know is that I loved them at first sight. Mostly because of the green color.

Each bunch had 7 flowers. I just pulled each flower off the stem & then poked them into the Styrofoam ball. Yup, I didn't even hot glue them. I will eventually, probably when gravity takes over & they fall out. But you know me, I'm lazy. For now, they are just poked in.

I used all but 3 flowers. So it took about 18 flowers to make this size ball. And it only took me about 5 minutes. My kind of crafting. Cheap, quick, easy, fabulous!!!

I guess I should have measured the Styrofoam ball & the completed ball to give you an idea of size. But I was just too excited to think about that before I started making it or posted about it.

I'm sure I'll make another one, or fifty. I'll try & remember to post about it then. And maybe I"ll even take photos during the process. I just need to find some more flowers like this at another Dollar Tree. I bought the last 3 bunches in this color at the one I went to yesterday.

I placed the flower ball under my cloche, where it will stay FOREVER.

Or until the flowers start dropping off, or I get bored & want to change it out.

I love it!!!



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