Look What I Made.. An Anniversary Gift

Ben and I are about to celebrate our second anniversary.. I know, poor guy, he has my birthday and our anniversary all in the same week.  Luckily he gets to bundle gifts. Anyways.. I recently made him a little somethin' (and yes, I gave it to him before I posted this). 

Happy Anniversary Ben!

It is a 20x24 frame with our wedding cards woven inside it.  It also says 'Kelley est 2009'

You could do this for anything.. I think I am going to do this with the boys' cards for their baptisms and birthdays. Anways...

First you need to start with all of our cards.  Check!

We had a lot of guests at our wedding... Therefore we had a lot of cards!

Then you need to start cutting! 

I was going to do a 1/2 inch or something like that, but I just decided to pick a spot on my paper cutter and just line everything up on that. 

I cut and I cut...

And I cut!

Then I started to weave the strips.  I suggest gluing the corner together first and then working your way across.  Be sure to push every row together tight, or by the end of your project your paper will be very spread apart and crooked!

Just keep weaving.

(Parker even tried to help.. Key word: Tried)

Oh yes.. If I haven't already stated.. I highly suggest a glass of wine while you're doing this project (just add it to the list of supplies).  It gets the creative juices flowing.  However, I do not suggest taking a drink after every piece that is woven.  What the heck.. Do what you want!

Your masterpiece will begin to take shape.  And just when you think you're getting somewhere, you'll measure it and you will realize that you are no where near being done.  Suggestion... Don't measure it!

Break time... Aka.. The boys are up!

And no, that is not still my first glass of 'creative juice!'

This is where I stopped for the night....

Pretty, huh?

After I was done weaving it to the size that I needed, I used a large piece of cardboard (or the back or the frame) and sprayed it with my handy spray adhesive.  Then I stuck the weaved paper on top of that.  I made sure to heavily spray the edges so the paper doesn't unravel if you ever need to change frames.

Framed and ready for the finishing touches... For those I used my beloved:

Cricut!

I went to Crafts Direct today (shocker.. I know) and purchased some white Cricut vinyl (that can be used on glass and walls and.. pretty much anything).

For this project I used the Calligraphy Collection font because they have one on there that looks Celtic and since we got married in Ireland, I thought it would be a perfect fit. 

I cut out: KELLEY sized at 3 1/2 inches 

I cut out: est 2009 at 1 1/2 inches

I used painters tape to make a straight line across the glass and then I stuck the letter directly to the glass.

Last, but not least, I gave it to the hubby and he hung it on the wall. 

I know the white kind of blends into the paper, but I wanted it to draw people closer to have them look at it.  Ok, my exact reasoning to Ben was:

'I want people to be like 'What does that say?  Oh my goodness... She wove all their wedding cards together to make this and then cut out words to go on top of it.  Wow!  She is amazing!''  So.. If you ever come to my house and see it (it is right next to the front door) I expect you to say that. 

Well, I am off to enjoy an episode of True Blood with my handsome fella. 

Hope you all enjoyed my anniversary gift tutorial and I will be back tomorrow to report on my awesome birthday...