Saturday, December 13, 2008

Ah, The Holidays

I have been neglecting my blog, as well as my house work in favor of creating sentimental Christmas gifts for the members of my immediate family. I started with my son's girlfriend. I had a photo of them together, but it had a bad background, so I photoshopped it. I am a new user of photoshop and it was good practice. Anyway, I added a nice blue background and had it printed. Then I bought a plain wood frame and got to work. I bought some funky beads to go with the tiles I had already and got to work. It did not take long to glue the tile and beads. The next day I added the grout. After curing for a couple of days, I wrapped it up. I am very pleased with the final product. For my second son, I wrote the story of him. His birthday is December 17. He will be 26 years old, so the years of toys and 'in' clothing have passed. Taking into consideration the economic environment, I decided to do something more personal, hence the book. It is a letter to him. One that I should have written 26 years ago. I have to say that I am quite proud of the text as well as the binding. I covered some thin cardboard with faux leather and put his monogram on the cover with gold fabric paint, and added some ribbon to tie it all up. It looks very nice if I do say so myself. Of course, there was a check included : ) Moving on to the Christmas gifts, I started with TOM. He was in the Army for 20 years and continues to work for the Department of Defense. During his military career, he collected a number of commemorative coins. These coins were just hanging around the house gathering dust so I decided it would be nice to put them in a display case. Not being too handy with the tools in the man cave, I decided it would be best to purchase the display frame. I know that's a step away from 'making it myself'' but it was probably smarter to keep my digits in tact and purchase the frame. The local craft store had them on sale for 50% off, so that is still a an inexpensive gift. The hardest part with this particular project was getting it done with him haning around. He did get up and go hunting this a.m. so I got busy. It turned out very nice. I used velcro to attach the coins, so I hope they don't fall off. I did not want to use hot glue as I was afraid to damage the coins that have enamel on them. The Christmas gift for my oldest son was more challenging. He will be 30 on his next birthday. It just gets harder as they get older! Anyway, he's had a run of bad luck the last couple of years (three jobs, broken hip that had him out of work for 8 weeks) and I figured he could use some good luck. So, I got the idea to create a 'spirit box' for him. He is kind of 'new agey' and is into crystals and medicine bags and other stuff like that, so I think he will appreciate a special box to hold his talismans; happy thoughts, plans for the future, things that make him feel good. I purchased a simple cardboard box, items to make a dream catcher, and will use the rest of the faux leather fabric. I found directions online for a dreamcatcher and it was relatively easy to make. The next thing was to start on the box. Covering this would be more challenging. I started with the lid. Because I wanted the lid to be attached so I had to make some modifications. I am a big fan of spray adhesive so that's what I used to adhere the fabric to the box cover. No muss, no fuss, and no hot glue burns. However, spray adhesive won't work for attaching the lid to the bottom so I used hot glue for that. Covering the box bottom will be harder so I stopped for the day. I made good progress and will try to finish tomorrow. For son number two, I am going to mat and frame a newspaper article in which he was mentioned. A photograph was included. At the restaurant where he works, they prepared Thanksgiving dinner for the local Meals on Wheels charity. It is not so 'creative' on my part, but as I am working, I might think of something else. I think he will appreciate tho. I wish I had thought to take pictures of the construction process, of the book, the display case, the spirit box, and the mosaic frame. But I can really only focus on one artistic project at a time : } I will have to take photos of eveyone with their gifts. Merry Christmas

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