framed

Here's a fun, personalized little gift I made recently.

decoupaged frame

I bought just a plain old shadow box - but really you could do this with a regular frame. 

Just be sure to choose a frame that is flat, without much detail, such as this:

It's also a lot easier to work on if the glass is removable (mine unfortunately was not). 

I picked up some scrap booking papers and printed off some images from the ole internet to glue onto the frame. Since I was giving this frame to a little boy, I chose images of some of his favourite things such as Thomas the Tank Engine, Cars, monkeys, robots and spaceships - ya know typical boy stuff.

Once all of the wood was covered, I added two coats of Modge Podge to seal it. Then I mounted a 5 x 7 picture onto some coordinating paper and inserted into the frame. Nothing too busy though, as the frame itself is busy enough. I felt it was important to visually have space between the actual photo and the frame, such as a matte or just a paper backing.

This is a fairly simple gift idea but one with big impact. It serves not only as a reminder of a moment in time, but also of a little boy's favourite things during that time.