Tending the Eclectic Kinder-Garden

Mom received her gift, a day before her birthday:

I’m certain the gift tag was a hint, since I used part of one of her favorite photos on it- the flowers are fireweed.

Inside the multiple layers of bubblewrap, Mom found some Scrabble tile holders that spelled out her family’s name, and this shadowbox:

This was one of the projects featured in Mark Montano’s Big A** Book of Crafts that I told you about in an earlier post.

I started with two copies of a photograph of my grandmother, mother and uncle standing in a field of fireweed in Alaska:

Using a very sharp x-acto knife, I cut around the image of the family, then placed it on top of the unaltered/uncut photo, using two or three layers of sticky adhesive foam squares:

Using the squares gave a 3-D effect, raising my family slightly out of the field:

I had several choices when it came to altering the photo further: doing more cutouts, which I decided against because the focus was the family; adding whimsical details like fairy wings, birds, stamps which frankly, just wouldn’t “fit” my family; and adding lettering, an oh-so-appropriate choice for a teacher:

Chipboard letters, or stickers?

For size and font, I chose the stickers, and went about figuring out placement:

The shadowbox itself was lined with a dull gray mat, so I played with some papers that seemed to compliment the lettering:

Once the papers were adhered to the interior walls of the box, it was time to add the altered photo:

For some reason, the photos I took of arranging the Scrabble tile rack, silk flowers, and pink beads didn’t turn out, so here is the final product:

With the scraps from the second photo, I chose a section of fireweed to use on Mom’s gift tag.

It’s a project I’m looking forward to doing again, possibly working with black and white photos next time- thanks Mark, for the idea and the how-to!

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What would a birthday be without cake, preferably, cupcakes?Creampuffs in Venice tried some whimsical mini-cupcakes with very pretty floral icing…Trophy Cupcakes and Party in Seattle was just featured on Martha (oh my goodness they make some beautiful, and apparently delicious cupcakes!)……and while Laura Rebecca’s Kitchen shared this recipe for coffee cake, I’m wondering how it would turn out if the batter was spooned into a cupcake tin instead…

Num, num num num!~

Tags: crafts, Hi Mom, Show and Share

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