Mums Are Like Buttons Box Frame with Buttons - Mother's Day Gift

I've been seeing the phrase 'mums are like buttons' everywhere recently - or at least in the run up to Mothers' Day, which in the UK was March 26 this year (it falls later in the year in other countries including the US).

The whole of that phrase is 'Mums are like buttons - they hold everything together'. I thought that sounded lovely and wanted to make my mum a Mothers' Day card with it on. In fact it started out as a card and turned into a gift!

I tracked down a rubber stamp with that exact sentiment which I stamped onto a square white card blank, and using glue dots stuck buttons in various shades of red and pink around it. I realised afterwards the quote was slightly off centre which was a shame but I'm sure my mum didn't mind too much.

The card looked too heavy with the buttons and I wanted it to be more of a keepsake, so I decided to make it into a framed picture instead.

The box frames sold in Hobbycraft are brilliant for this sort of thing and they are often in half price sales where you can get the smallest size for as little as 2 pounds, so I tend to stock up on a couple every now and then.

The frame made the perfect setting for my Mothers' Day gift.

I'm sharing this with the Addicted to Stamps challenge and Fab Funky Challenges

Scrabble Name Picture for a Londoner

I like giving homemade gifts and ever since I discovered Hobbycraft's box frames I haven't run out of ideas. I first made a picture spelling out a family's names in scrabble letters several years ago; now they are much more common and it's easy to buy packs of the wooden letters with flat backs which are easy for gluing (for instance Hobbycraft, Amazon and the Works sell them quite cheaply).

I wasn't planning to make another one any time soon until I found this piece of wrapping paper with a fab London design. I thought it would look great in a frame, and it made me think of my friend Alice who had a birthday coming up, as she lives in central London.

 The wrapping paper, from Scribbler, features London landmarks and various city skyscrapers which I recognise from around where I work. I decided the picture needed something to stand out against the background and so I found a design in the Silhouette store and used by Silhouette Cameo to cut out a few shapes from black card:

 

The umbrella was part of the set but I decided not to use it! I mounted them on top of the backing paper and put it in the frame.

My husband thought that the scrabble letters would be the finishing touch and I wasn't sure, as they would stand out better against a plain background, but personalising a gift definitely makes it more special. I hope Alice liked it!

Sailing Family Scrabble Name Picture

 

There’s something special about handmade gifts as you know that extra attention has gone into them – all the more so if it was handmade by the person giving the gift.

 

Several years ago I made a scrabble name picture for my now-husband’s brother and his family. I think it’s a lovely thing to have, and when it was my friend’s birthday this summer and I was struggling to think of a gift, I remembered this and thought she would like it. (Luckily, she did!)

 

 

I found it much easier to purchase a frame this time, that was both a better size and price; Hobbycraft had these white box frames for £8 – which are currently only £4 in the sale, in fact I think I might buy a few more.

 

 

I bought the scrabble letters from Amazon; they are not real scrabble pieces with the little legs on the back to fit into the holes on a scrabble board, but instead are flat, which makes them much easier to glue.

 

 

 

My friend and her husband are really into sailing so I bought some sailing patterned paper from Ebay to use as the backing paper and used my Silhouette die cutter to cut out a sailing boat.

 

 

I used the letters to spell out their names and that of their son, and the words ‘family’ and ‘love’ and placed the sailing boat at the bottom. I was really pleased with this and my friend said she loved it.

 

 

A personalised Christmas gift: canvas photo picture

Handmade, homemade and personalised Christmas presents are brilliant. Whether it’s a salt dough decoration made by your toddler, some shortbread given by a friend, or a collage of photos made for a cherished family member you know that time and effort – and love – has been put into the creation of the gift. And what’s more, you end up with something really unique.

 

I’ve featured a few handcrafted gifts on this blog including a framed picture I made for the Christening of a friend’s baby, a Scrabble picture spelling out the names of my boyfriend’s brother and his wife and children, and these homemade bath fizzers.

 

Sometimes you don’t have time – or the necessary skills – to produce something handmade, and this is where specialist companies come into their own. The Creative Canvas Company contacted me a few months ago to ask if I would like to review a canvas picture that you put together yourself from uploading a photo to the site to building the canvas frame. I thought this would be the perfect housewarming gift for my boyfriend as we have just bought our first house together – moving and unpacking is the reason for the delay in posting this review!

 

The website was very easy to use – I went to the ‘photo canvas prints’ section and clicked on ‘get started’. You choose the style – you can have one large picture, or one large and two small, or a selection of smaller pictures like a collage on the same canvas. Then choose your size – you can see clearly the price you will pay for each type of picture and size so if you have a budget it’s easy to stick to it.

 

Uploading the photo and checking I was happy with how it was cropped and centred couldn’t be easier, and then it was just a case of paying and waiting for the picture to arrive.

 

It comes in a long thin box as you have to put the picture together yourself. I have to admit I was quite dubious about this - I bought two canvas photo pictures a few years ago that came ready made, but admittedly did cost more. As we unrolled the canvas and laid out the four posts I had a sinking feeling that this might not work, but I needn't have worried.

 All you do is lay the four pieces of the frame out in the corners of your picture (with the photo facing downwards of course), then unpeel the sticky tape, cut a slit in each corner and fold the edges of the picture over the edges of the frame, then fold the four pieces of the frame inwards to make a sturdy box frame. Don't worry if that doesn't quite make sense - it comes with easy-to-follow instructions.

It also comes with a hook so it was really very easy to put together and hang on the wall. I gave this to my boyfriend as our housewarming present as we have just bought our first (and hopefully only!) house together. The photo is one I took of his car outside Leeds Castle on a Supercar day that was a wonderful day out and a lovely memory - and it looks pretty good!

It looks great on the wall of the 'man cave' above a scale model of his car that he had wanted for years which I finally managed to track down last Christmas!

I think something like this would make a great Christmas gift and you can of course use any kind of photo- you could even choose the collage style and make a framed picture for your wall of all your favourite things you have baked!

Thanks to the Creative Canvas Company for inviting me to try out their service and sending me the photo canvas free of charge.

New Baby Picture - Christening Gift

 

This is a Christening gift I made for a friend's baby. I was approached by a company called Fantastic Ribbons which is an online retailer selling a huge range of ribbons and buttons, which you can use for wedding decorations, crafts or gift wrapping. They asked me to choose two items to review, and I immediately knew what I wanted to make.

I was looking on their site for a blue ribbon that would be suitable for a new baby picture and was very pleased to find one with little baby footprints. It was only £2.50 for a 4 metre roll; there was also a blue gingham ribbon I liked. I was also hoping that I would be able to get some blue buttons and the pack I bought, costing £5, was perfect for this project - I received a re-sealable bag with buttons of different shades of blue and in different sizes. I wanted a mis-matched effect so this was ideal.

 Because the buttons were quite thick, I knew a normal picture frame wouldn't work and I needed a box frame, which gives you more space between the picture and the glass, so you can put keepsakes or embellishments on the picture. I was very pleased with the one I bought from Hobbycraft; they had various sizes and I chose 20cmx20cm. The white frame was great as I wanted something neutral and thought this looked nicer than a wood effect,  and at £8 I thought it was good value.

 I also bought some letter stickers from The Works; again these were perfect as the mismatched sizes and colour were just what I wanted. These were £1.49 per pack and I bought a couple of packs to make sure I had enough of each letter.

To make the picture, I started with a large piece of backing card which I picked up from my local card making shop; you can also buy these online. I had a photograph of my friend's baby which I actually printed out from one of her Facebook photos, so I wouldn't have to ask for a picture and spoil the surprise! I trimmed the photo and decided where I wanted to place it on the card and stuck on the lettering to spell the words "cute as a button". Now you can see why I wanted the buttons!

I added the baby photo and glued the baby footprint ribbon around the photo to make a frame. I then stuck a handful of buttons of different sizes and shades in a slightly haphazard fashion around one corner of the photo. Finally I placed the whole thing in the frame. I'm pleased with this and hope my friend liked it!

Thanks to Fantastic Ribbons for sending me the ribbon and buttons.

Scrabble name picture

Earlier this year I needed to get a birthday present for twin boys who were celebrating their first birthday. I have never bought presents for babies or children before, so had no idea what to get, and as I hadn't known them that long I didn't know what toys and games they had already.

Furthermore their parents are my boyfriend's brother and his wife, who I had only got to know a few months previously, so I wanted to make a good impression! One of my favourite websites is www.notonthehighstreet.com, which features gifts that you can't buy in high street stores. Most things are handmade, which justifies their price, but they are still quite expensive. I kept coming back to one particular item which I really liked: a framed picture with a word or name spelled out in scrabble letters. I thought it would be a lot cheaper to make myself, and couldn't be that hard, so I gave it a go!

First I worked out which letters I would need and went on Ebay; several people sell spare scrabble tiles and you can specify which letters you need. It would have been cheaper to buy a whole scrabble set if I'd been able to pick one up in a charity shop or a car boot sale, but I wasn't able to do that, so I bought them from Ebay.

Getting a frame wasn't as easy as I had thought either, as it needed to be quite large to accommodate all the names, but also quite deep so the glass would fit over the scrabble tiles. I ended up buying a frame over the internet that was more expensive than I would have liked, but it was the only one I could find that was the right size - and it was still a LOT less expensive than buying the ready-made gift! I used some 12x12 scrapbooking paper as the background that I already had at home.
Here are the pieces before assembly.....

.... and the finished product!

I was really pleased with it and hopefully the recipients were too. I liked it so much I might actually have to make one for myself!