A Gift For Mom

My mom is such a special lady, it is only fitting that I make her something extra special for Mother's Day.

My mom is the reason for my passions.  She's a "Jill of All Crafts" so-to-speak.  She sews, smocks, embroiders, quilts, cross-stitches, knits, crochets, and almost everything in between.  The only thing she doesn't do is scrapbook/card make.  Lol.  Where I get it from, I have no clue.  She has been my teacher since I was a small girl, and  truly my inspiration.  There's nothing she can't figure out how to make, and once she puts her mind to it... she does it.  Right down to making (from scratch!) the flower girl's dress for my sister's wedding last year and doing ALL the alterations on my bridesmaids' dresses back when I got married in 2005.  She's truly amazing!

A year ago or so she finally got around to converting my sister's old bedroom into her "permanent craft room" (before she was in a smaller, unused bedroom temporarily) and it's absolutely stunning!  She found this really neat craft room furniture that has dressers that hide everything, as well as my dad made her a really nice counter with cabinets and drawers for her sewing and embroidery machines.  I'm so jealous of her space and really wish we could do something similar at my house.  It's her own little sanctuary away from the world, and I think her most favorite place to be.  I thought for Mother's Day it would be really nice to make her something to decorate her room with.  She has yet to really do anything other than setup furniture and unpack some boxes.... she's more interested in creating!

I can't take the credit for this one, I "scraplifted" the idea from Michele over at Thoughts of a Cardmaking Scrapbooker.  It seemed PERFECT for her and for her new room.  I really hope she likes it!

Recipe:

• 12" x 12" Shadowbox from JoAnn's
• 2 pkgs of wooden thread spools from JoAnn's (20 Total)
• 1 Sheet of Open-Stock 12" x 12" paper from my stash
• 5 different colors of solid cardstock from stash, cut at 1/2" wide x 3"
• White Cricut Vinyl from JoAnn's (used a 50% off coupon)
• Cricut Cut: Sewing Cut from Cricut Word Collage - cut at 11"

I ATG'ed the paper to the back of the shadowbox.  I then used the little strips of paper and wrapped it around the little wooden spools.  They were hot glued to the back board evenly spaced (well, as evenly spaced as I could get them).  This shadowbox was perfect because the glass pane on the front was completely removable, which made it super easy to do the vinyl.  Put it all back together and voila!  All done!  Took about 3 hours from start to finish, but a lot of that time was just gluing the little paper strips to the wooden spools and then getting them lined up on the back board.  I probably could have done a bit of distressing on it, but was terrified that I would screw it all up and have to start over :-(  I think, regardless, that my mom is going to LOVE it!  Well, I hope she does. 

The thing I loved the most about this shadowbox is that it already had the hanger on the back.  There's nothing worse than giving someone a gift that they have to alter just to be able to hang it.  This one is ready to go :-)

Be sure to check out my very first GIVEAWAY, and check out all the details on the upcoming Mother's Day blog hop!