Magical 50th Wood Frame

Well, friends, this was the year I turned 50!  It's hard to believe that milestone has come and gone.  Hi everyone, it's Maureen and earlier this year I had a very big birthday so we did a trip to Disney World to celebrate.  Now I have a lot of amazing photos printed and I've been trying to decide what to do with them.

The selection of wood frames at Clear Scraps are just the ticket to putting those all-important photos out on display.  Today I'm working with the Magical Birch Wood Frame and it is a fun, yet simple project to get those photos out of a box.

I started by doing a couple coats of white acrylic paint on the letters of the frame.  I didn't feel it necessary to sand them between coats, but if you like a smoother appearance, you certainly can.  The top mouse piece and frame overlay are both painted in a black acrylic paint.

Next, I took the tip of my paintbrush handle and dipped it in some black acrylic paint.  This is then applied to the white letters as one dot with 2 smaller dots to make it look like mouse ears.  I repeated this across all the white letters.  It's not necessary to feel like they have to be perfectly round.

As I looked at the frame, I thought it would be fun to mimic Mickey Mouse hands in the shape of a heart, and I just happened to find a cut file in my Cricut design library that did just that!  I cut it out at 4.25" in width in both a white and black card stock.  These were glued together, and then I added the number 50 in silver and and glued the frame overlay at the bottom.

Since I lost a picture spot when I covered it with the Mickey hands, I decided to add a chipboard mini shaker!  For this, I'm using the Mini Heart Shaker, and I've traced it on to some silver card stock as well as one of my photos.  These were both cut out, and then the picture was glued to the base of the shaker.

Next, I filled the shaker, applied the other 3 layers and the acrylic top (don't forget to take off that film on both sides!) and glued down with glue.  I also took a small bow and glued it to the edge of my shaker.  This is then glued to the corner edge of the letter M, and the frame is attached to the main piece, along with my photos.

My pictures had us wearing sunglasses for St. Patrick's Day, so I also dug out a die cut for some sunglasses that was in my stash at home, and added sunglasses to the mouse shape in the upper corner, as well as a star cut out too.  I've used a silver and metallic card stock for this.  Isn't that fun??

The frame can be set on an easel, or if you'd prefer, you can use a heavy duty stapler and staple some twine to the back to hang it up.  I think this will make a great addition to my craft area, since a lot of my artwork revolves around Disney.  I may be 50, but I sure haven't grown up!  Hee hee!

I hope this has inspired you to get a few photos out of those boxes or albums that you store them in.  Here's a quick list of tools you'll need if you decide to make one yourself.  Have a magical day, everyone!

Maureen

Tools used:  silver/black/white card stock, Cricut Joy and Design Files, acrylic paints in black and white, shaker embellishments of white/silver stars and pearls, shimmery silver ribbon, tacky glue