Love Lives Here

When Kipper and I first started dating, money was tight and we didn't always have a ton to spend on each other at Christmas. We would generally just do one nice gift or a few smaller ones. After we got married and combined finances we still didn't have tons of money to spend at the holidays. And it never fails when Kipper would do our budget, he always budgets for me to spend about half as much on him as he will on me. This drives me crazy because I love surprising him, but it forces me to plan ahead and get creative.  Each year at Christmas I try and create a special gift for Kipper. In 2010, I sort of outdid myself  (if I can say so myself) and created a painted photo canvas that he will tell you is his favorite Christmas present ever! And honestly, out of all the projects I have done it was the most special to do and it makes me smile every time I see it! (even though I have learned a lot this year through other projects and I think I could make it 100 times better now! lol) 

This year Kipper has been working to purchase a bike so he can start riding with some of the guys at work. He asked everyone who wanted to give him a gift to make it a gift card towards his bike so that he could pay it off in mid-January. So...I decided I would do something a little smaller this year. Of course I turned to Pinterest to find some inspiration! :)

I loved the ideas of doing something with buttons and was originally going to do a M or Martin, but then I found the heart with the "Love Lives Here" and I knew that was it!

Here is how I did it:

• Used a colorful sheet of scrapbook paper to cut out the exact shape of the heart I wanted. 
• I used a print that had different colored circles on it so it blended well with the buttons. 
• Picked a selection of buttons in all different colors and sizes out to sew onto the heart.
• Yes, you read that right...I hand stitched the buttons on verse gluing and I am oh so happy I did! 
• Here is a great tip to help if you are sewing buttons onto paper, especially several in a confined space: use small pieces of scotch over your stitches on the backside. It helped give the paper more weight and support.
• Sewing the buttons took longer than I expected because I was very particular about where each button went cause I wanted as little of the paper showing, but I also wanted to stay within the lines of the heart I cut out
• After I got all of the buttons sewn on I wanted to do something subtle to fill in some of the larger spots between buttons where the paper was showing. Because rhinestones are my thing,  I went in and scattered different colored rhinestones, as well as some AB stones throughout the heart. 
• I let that dry overnight and set out to find a frame
• Tip for picking out a frame: because of the dimension in the heart, you can't just use any old frame. It needs to be something that has some depth from glass to the artwork/photo. 
• I found Hobby Lobby had the most options of this style frame and they are ALWAYS  running 50% off sales on frames. I ended up getting this one for $10 or $11! 
• Next I went into photoshop and created the text to print on the background. 
• Even though I used photoshop, you could very easily use word or publisher to do this. 
• Print the text and cut it to size for the frame. 
• Glue the heart onto the background paper.
• After the glue has dried all that is left to do is pop it in your frame! 

I was super excited to give it to Kipper, but I was also a little worried it might be a little too girly. Yet as I watched him open it and then the way he looked up and smiled at me - all those worries went out the window cause I knew he loved it as much as I had hoped!

This post is part of Get Your Craft On Tuesday at Today's Creative Blog!