Love Frame

For my parents for Valentine's, I tried to find a cute picture frame for them to add to their collection of a million baby photos. I was going to get one that said something about "grandparents", so I bundled up baby and went to Target. All of the grandparent frames were a little too modern or gaudy, and all of the Valentine's were -- of course -- hot pink and red. I wanted something they could display year round, so I decided to make my own. Had I planned it out a little better, I would have gone to Hobby Lobby and bought a plain DIY wooden one. But I didn't, so I picked up a hot pink one to paint.

Using paints I had on hand, I painted the back brown...

...and the front / sides an airy blue. {We have horrible lighting upstairs, and the flash was too bright.}

I then went around all the edges with a distressing ink pad to give it a more worn look.

I'm thinking the ink is more for paper because it took forever to dry. I ended up using a hairdryer to help speed things up a bit. While I was waiting, I tried Googling quotes about grandparents, but couldn't find any I liked {though I found a million after I was done!}.

So, I decided to keep it simple -- I painted some white letter stickers brown to spell "love"...

...added a key...

...and a lock at the top.

I thought it turned out SO pretty.

And, I can't believe I didn't get a picture of the final product!! I ended up making a copy of baby's footprint heart keepsake in black & white, then cut around the heart and glued it to some vintage-y looking scrapbook paper with the same blue. It looked soo cool, I want to make one for myself! Maybe I'll sneak a photo next time I'm at my parents' house :).

Linking up to:

www.craftytexasgirls.com