Money Matters Monday {8.19.13}

Happy beautiful Monday to you!  Heidi Nicole here once again with another project!  I can’t stress enough how much you can do with your digital graphics…  the possibilities are honestly limitless!  It’s sometimes hard to think about your digital graphics packs or word art packages as actual physical elements, but once you start thinking about them as printable, cut-able, paste-able things, you’re creativity will soar!  You don’t have to think of yourself as crafty or creative (although all of you who are thinking you aren’t crafty or creative are, well…  wrong) to do these projects.  Anyone can make unique and personal crafts for a reasonable price. As we remodel our house, I have been going room to room, thinking about what I can make to personalize and warm our home.  Something I’ve been wanting to make is a shadow box to display all of our hockey, baseball, concert, play, dance recital, and football tickets that we’ve collected over the years.  Just in case you don’t know me, I like to save things…  a lot…
So…  without further ado…

What you’ll need:

Shadow Box (I got mine from Hobby Lobby for $16)

Wooden Letter  ($1.50)

Printed Digital Patterned Paper (I used the big dotted paper in my Beautiful {You} Graphics Pack, but I desaturated it so it was more gray than beige)

Paint in any color/Paint Brush

Glue or Mod Podge

Pencil

Scissors

Hot Glue Gun

I traced the shape of the wooden ‘M’ onto my pattern paper (remember to flip the paper and whatever you’re tracing) with a pencil and cut it out.

I then painted the edges of the ‘M’ and let it dry.

As the paint was drying, I knew I wanted a little bit of a worn look to my paper, so I took some sand paper and lightly sanded the paper I’d already cut out (or you could ink the edges for a grungy look).

Once the paint had completely dried, I pasted on the paper to the wooden ‘M’.  I would normally use Mod Podge, but I’ll be honest…  I can’t find it!

Lastly, I glued the ‘M’ to the shadow box using the hot glue gun…  and here’s the final result!

I will eventually hang it on the wall, and we’ll just keep adding our tickets to it…  looks much better than the big ziplock I was storing them in!  I spent $17.50 on this project (I had most of the stuff at home), and we will enjoy it for years to come!  It’s unique and has sentimental value (the tickets to the Jason Mraz concert we went to on the night we got engaged are in there… sigh)…  that’s what it’s all about!  If this inspires you to make one for your home…  or what a cool gift!…  please post a pic in the gallery at theCreativePixel!