Sweet Sentiments

I did this project a few months ago for a close friend as a thank-you for helping out during a difficult time. It happened to be close to her anniversary, 10.10.10 -- how cool is that?! -- so I made her and her husband something sweet and personal to help them celebrate their first year of married life.  With Valentine's Day just around the corner, it seemed like an appropriate time to share and hopefully inspire some homemade, sentimental gifts.

Here's what I used to make Katie's Anniversary Art...

*a small frame -- found at Michael's  *a Texas road atlas/map -- which was surprisingly hard to find!  Apparently maps are no longer a necessity with our fancy-schmancy phones these days and when I finally found one on my fourth try, there were just a few left in the clearance section  *card stock of your choice for the background  *date label -- I printed mine on white fabric using freezer paper and my home printer, which I can explain in more detail, but you could simply use a marker, or printer, or stickers, etc.  *thread of your choice *scissors  *glue

First thing I did was cut my background card stock to the appropriate size. I did this by removing the glass from my frame, tracing around it onto the backside of the paper, and simply cutting it out with scissors. Now that I had my background, I could decide how big I wanted my label. I chose to try something new I'd heard about which allows you to use your normal home printer and print right on fabric using freezer paper.  I cut my freezer paper to 8 1/2 x 11 -- standard computer paper size -- and pressed it shiny side down onto the wrong side of my fabric. Then I cut my fabric to the same size and sent it through the printer like it was a piece of paper. Peel of the freezer paper and use your customized fabric however you choose -- in this case, for an anniversary label :)

Since I was using fabric as my label, I wanted a little stitch detail to highlight it.  I secured the fabric label with a very thin layer of glue just to keep it in place and once it was dry, began zig-zag stitching around the edges.

I wanted the stitch length closer than normal and as much thread showing as possible, so I chose these settings on my machine.

I worked my way around the label -- with just a few glitches -- and really loved how it turned out!

Now it was time for my map! Katie and Mike were married in Austin, so I thought it most appropriate to use in their anniversary art :)

I used some leftover card stock to make a heart template -- I didn't trust myself to get a perfect heart on my first try -- and traced it right on the front of my map, centering Austin as best I could.

Next, I cut it out and used glue to adhere it to my card stock.

All that was left was to let it dry, put it in the frame and wrap it up!

Other than hunting down a map, it was such a simple project and has so many possibilities.  Might be a sweet little gift for a special valentine :)