Ticket Stub Shadowbox

Pinterest was the source of this great DIY! I found a pin for Foursided, a company that sells these great shadowboxes, but instead of purchasing one, I wanted to see if I could do it myself. I think it turned out pretty sweet!

This was a ridiculously easy project that took about an hour, maybe less. I bought the shadowbox from Michael's on sale for $12. I had the background paper already and designed and printed out the {admit one} label on regular paper.

Step by step:

1. Take off back of shadowbox and cut a slot at the top. I had originally wanted to cut a slot in the top of the box like the ones from Foursided, but my box was plastic and it would have cracked. The boyfriend cleverly suggested this alternative. :)

2. Cut paper to dimensions needed to cover the entire back of the shadowbox.

3. Secure paper with hot glue and be sure to overlap the slot opening with the paper for a seamless look.

4. Reattach the back to the rest of the shadowbox and remove the stray hot glue strands.

5. Fill with your ticket stubs and enjoy!

Overall a very easy project and a great way to keep all those ticket stubs and memories of fun times!

love birds painting

<3 birds

I finally got around to tackling this project! Luckily, my boyfriend agreed to help me with it and I think we made a great team. I saw a similar painting a few months ago on the internet and knew I wanted to attempt it. I'd gone to some painting classes, but I wanted to try this without the aide of an instructor. I got the canvas from a garage sale for 50 cents. It had a painting already on it, but I figured if the person was selling it, she wasn't too attached.

I used Acrylic paint from Michael's and a foam brush for most of the painting in order to cover the canvas. I didn't really have a set plan or pattern, I just mixed colors I liked and went to town.

This was my first finished product for the background. My boyfriend {correctly} suggested I make it lighter so that the birds would show more (the light part in the picture above is the flash). I added white and basically hated what it looked like after I was done. Hated it. I actually gave up and went to bed because I thought I ruined it.

So it sat for about a week, lonely and forgotten, until I finally decided to try again. My boyfriend helped and I actually like how it turned out the third time the most!

adding the black line with a thin brush

We added black to the edges and dabbed away some of the paint from the middle with a wet paper towel. Weird, but it worked! We added the black line and the birds for the final product!

Here is a computer edited version of our painting IF we had gone with more blue.

I think both look awesome, but overall, I'm very happy with the painting. Can't wait to do more!