Saturday, February 8, 2014

Valentine's Day Shadow Box

My daughter made this for her husband this year for Valentine's Day....so he hasn't received it yet. She showed it to me and I thought it was so clever, I wanted to blog about it. It's inexpensive, quick, VERY personal and it also lasts all year long!!

Items needed:

~ 9x11" Shadow box

~  Scrapbook Paper of your choice

Directions:

(1) After opening shadow box and removing background piece, cut paper to size for the background. Before attaching anything permanently, fool around with the papers and embellishments to make sure you're satisfied with the final product. Decide on the size and color of the paper for the 'I love you because" banner when arranging the other items...just to make sure you love it!! You want to make sure this is the first thing your eye is drawn to when looking at the box.

My daughter used paper that looks like a love letter directly behind the banner (left), and also matted it on the red paper to make it stand out. (Good idea)  The birds (bottom right) were cut from another paper and placed in front of the striped background paper.

If you're planning to add embellishments at the front of the box (like the butterfly, top right, and the card with birds, bottom left) prepare those at this time also, rearranging everything until it looks the way you'd like.

(2) Attach all papers and embellishments. Slide the close-up embellishments between the glass and the inside lip of the frame. (They end up looking as if you slid them into the frame edge, but they are actually inside the glass where they can't be moved.) Close up box.

(3) Using an erasable-on-glass marker (Sharpie was used here. It comes off with Windex), write across the front of the glass the first "I love you because" reason... Of course, as seen in the photo, my daughter wrote "You buy me flowers". (He does buy her flowers all the time...) The beauty of this gift is that it can be erased monthly, weekly or even daily, however often you'd like, and a new 'reason' can be written..."You're a great  Daddy", "You're a hard worker", ""You pick up your own socks!"...or funny stuff that you DO appreciate: "You don't make weird noises when we have company" or "You don't lift up your shirt & scratch your belly in public"....and on and on. Have fun with this one & have a Happy Valentine's Day!!

This picture shows how the 'reason' is written across the front of the glass,
making it possible to change as frequently as desired.

Sweet....