It's time to start crafting and decorating for Valentine's Day! And of course, it's even better if you can get those decorations and craft materials on clearance :)
For my first Valentine's Day craft of the year, I decided to make this cute frame. Times have been kind of tough lately, so it's great to remind yourself of the things in your life that you love. With this frame on my desk showing me cuddling with my husband and my sweet dog, it will be easy to remember that I'm always surrounded by love.
I found this heart shaped black chalkboard frame at Michael's last year for 50 cents. It was originally $1.99, so that's 75% off the original price! They have frames like this year round at similarly low prices, so you can pick one up at any time if you don't see one on sale.
Since it has a solid black background and I was making it for Valentine's Day, I thought it would be best to use traditional Valentine's colors: white, pink, and red. These Arteza paint pens have been sitting around in my craft room forever, so I decided finally give them some use.
To begin, I drew a bunch of hearts on the bottom half of the frame in different colors and sizes. I didn't plan out where they'd go in advance but instead just placed them randomly wherever it felt right.
The paint pens were pretty frustrating! I'm not sure if it's because they're kind of old or if I was just using them the wrong way, but sometimes there wouldn't be enough paint on the end of the pen and other times the paint flowed way too quickly. The white one even broke and got oily paint all over my hands. Still, I think the frame turned out pretty cute.
Next, I selected a picture and printed it as a 5x7 on photo paper. The instructions for the frame suggested using a 5x5, but there was enough space above and below the focal point in the picture that I could cut it down to size.
I used the cardboard piece in the center of the frame as a stencil to trace a heart on the picture that would fit perfectly in the frame. To make the picture sturdier, I glued it to the cardboard piece after I cut it out.
The stencil was a bit wider than the picture which left a little bit of the white photo paper showing on each side. I used a black Sharpie to color over the white areas to make them less obvious.
Once the picture was in the frame, I noticed it didn't stand out too well since the frame and the picture are both dark. It also looked kind of plain, so I decided to add a few more details.
This time, I chose to use white acrylic paint rather than the paint pens since I'd already broken the white one and didn't want to get more of the sticky oil based paint on my hands.
I outlined the heart using a solid line of white paint, which made the picture stand out a lot more. Next, I added little dots on the top of the heart to make the frame more interesting. The dots looked so nice that I decided to outline the rest of the frame with them as well.
It's a simple project that only took two hours, and I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. Hopefully, it will help me focus on the positive things in my life whenever I see it. Don't forget to take some time out every day to focus on the things and people you love as well!
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