DIY kinda girl: My latest wedding gift

I love to make wedding gifts. Registries are a wonderful thing, and I certainly appreciated everything we got from ours...but I figure most people will probably shop from the registry and cover the necessities, so I can do something more personal and fun! :) A dear family friend got married last weekend, and I was trying to think of a new wedding gift to make (I was tired of my old fall-back ideas). So, of course, I hopped on Pinterest and saw this, and this, and this:

And then came up with this!

It was pretty simple! I took an 8X10 frame (courtesy of a garage sale) and a wood letter (courtesy of Michaels),

painted them with Americana Acrylic Paint in Bittersweet Chocolate, then gave them both a couple coats of Krylon Matte Finish spray. This is for durability, of course, but also to give the acrylic paint a more attractive finish...it kinda looks dull otherwise.

Then I made my own script patterned paper in Photoshop, using the couple's names, wedding date and the saying "Happily Ever After."

Printed it out, and traced around the letter (put it face down on the backside of your patterned paper).

Cut it out, and modge podged it onto the letter. (I love Modge Podge.)

Speaking of Modge Podge, after ripping off the part of the cardboard backing that makes the frame stand up, I then laid the rectangle onto my burlap, and loosely cut around it. Then slapped some Modge Podge onto the cardboard, and carefully laid the burlap over it and smoothed it down. After that, trim the edges off.

I took a strip of fabric, about an inch wide, and tied it around the top of the letter (which you unfortunately cannot do with every letter!),

then looped it over the frame. This part was a little tricky. I then put in the burlap covered insert, and pulled the two ends of the fabric until I got the letter positioned just right, then hot glued the edges down on the back of the cardboard, then covered it with another piece of cardboard to keep things neat and tidy.

Then tied a bit of lace around the letter. I jazzed up a plain green button with some glitter,

and added a little rhinestone in the center, then hot glued that onto the knot in the lace.

THEN, for the final touch, I took my Martha Stewart Sanserif font clear mount stamps, and spelled out "truly, madly, deeply" and "since 2012" and stamped them onto the corners of the burlap, using Stampin' Up! Chocolate Chip ink.

Lastly, I put a quick bit of hot glue on the back of the B and stuck it to the burlap.

All done! And I think it is great!

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