A Shabby Thank You

I wanted to make a present for a nurse at my doctor's office that helped me so much through my recent health scare. She made all my appointments for me and helped me to get fasttracked through the whole process. She is so very sweet every time I go in. I knew she deserved a special thank you for all she did for me.

But what do you get for someone when you don't have a lot of extra money to thank them the way you'd like to and you're not really sure what they like and don't like?

I decided to make a shabby picture frame for her. We all have pictures of loved ones that we like to sit on our desks or mantels or where ever.

I started with basic materials (I did take a picture of all this but when I tried to email it to myself, I deleted it instead):

Supplies: 

Wooden frame (I got this one at Michael's)
scrapbook paper
acrylic paint
embellishments (these flowers came from Stampin' Up)

Tools:
sponge applicator
exacto knife
scissors
Modge Podge
sand paper
hot glue gun

I started off by painting the whole frame with some acrylic paint. The color is called Caribbean Blue. Doesn't that sound nice? I also painted the inside of the picture window pink for a little contrast.

I had the paint and the scrapbook paper on hand. This is one of those crafting times when everything just falls into place. The paint I picked up a few months back and the paper has been sitting in my office/craft room for about a year. The colors just matched perfectly.

Once the paint was dry on the frame, I Modge Podged the front and placed the scrapbook paper on. I placed a large square on the frame and lined it up with the corners and one edge. Then I went back and cut out around the frame. Once that was finished, I took the exacto knife and cut out the center square. I'm sure more skilled crafters could have measured and cut the correct sized strips in the first place but we all know who we are dealing with here so that didn't happen.

Once the paper was lined up, I Modge Podged it to seal it all around on the frame.

This is when I should have sanded the edges and sides but I put on another coat of Modge Podge before I remembered I wanted to sand it all down a little. It worked but not as well as I would have liked.

I then hot glued the flower embellishments onto the frame. Once everything was dry, I just placed the cut out center back behind the glass instead of the one that came with the frame. I liked how it all lined up nicely.

I hope my friend likes her gift and I hope she knows how much I appreciated all she did for me.