60th Birthday Gag Gift

My mom's best friend is turning 60. Happy Birthday, Sherry! (Although this post will be sometime after her birthday - I'm such a procrastinator.)

Here is a little of the back story: My mom's mother (my grandmother) and Sherry's mother were friends and neighbors, so my mom and Sherry grew up together. And her daughter and I grew up knowing each other. So, this birthday feels not only like a celebration of her life, but also their 60 years long friendship.

Guests of her party have been asked to bring a gag gift. After a little shopping, I couldn't bring myself to buy the normal over-the-hill gift. The birthday girl is a sophisticated, beautiful lady. So I decided to make her a book of "tools" for those over 60 to fit the gag-gift theme but stuff she could reuse.

This is what I came up with: (forgive the pictures - I am using my camera phone and the lighting is terrible).

I purchased the book at TJ Max. It is a large, over-sized book that feels a little like leather. I made the letters. I will come back to those.

This is the side view of the book. It has a texture and look of gold leafed pages.

The book is actually a box. It is lined with a soft fabric. I purchased items and added tags with cute little sayings I found on a website for over-the-hill games. Also, I added a funny certificate of maturity to the inside of the lid with the birthday girl's name and birthday, but I don't have a picture of it.

To make the tags, I used paper that coordinated with the color of the book. I then used the same paper to make the letters on the book. The first layer is a salmon color that I cut with Nestabilities and then embossed for a raised edge. I inked the edges in brown.

I typed sayings in a Word document with my desired font. I picked a fancy font to go with the traditional feel of the gift. Then I printed them on cream cardstock (close up it looks a little like antique paper). I used an oval Nestiability that would fit nicely over the bottom layer to cut out the sayings. I also inked the cream, oval paper in brown.

I punched holes in the tags and used brown ribbon from Michael's sale bin and tied the tags to all the items. I found these cute sayings on a website years ago, and unfortunately I've forgotten exactly where. . . . My favorite is the magnifying glass. It says "To help you see the fine print now that your eyesight isn't what it use to be." I made the print smaller and smaller so that the magnifying glass was needed to read the last part "what it use to be."

An over-sized paper clip in pink. Sometime ago I saw a paperclip that was actually a large silver paper weight. That is what I wanted but could not find one in time for the party, so I purchased this one at Walmart in a pack of 4 for about $2.00. Also Joann Fabric's has an over-sized wooden clothes hanger that I believe would be really cute!

The tag says "because sometimes it's hard to hold it all together as you get older"

Marbles "for when you lose yours" and Mints "so you can remember all the things you're "mint" to do"

I couldn't find Gummy Teeth that I liked so I left this out of the box. I did have a Balloon "to hold the hot air you're full of." It's not pictured because we got it the day of the party. I purchased a tiny balloon, had it blown up just enough so it would fit in the box when closed. I had a vision that it would float out of the box when it opened, but there wasn't enough helium so it wouldn't float. (I'll know better next time!)

I cut the letters from Storybook Cricut cartridge using Cricut Design Studio (the Craft Room wasn't up and running yet) with the same cardstock as for the bottom layer of the tags. Using brown ink and a natural sponge, I inked the sides and front of the letters to give them an aged look. (Unfortunately my camera doesn't do them justice!)

I adhered the letters with my ATG gun. I ran the adhesive over my finger and kind-of balled it up and stuck it to the letters. I wanted the letters to be removable so she can use the book in the future.

In the end, I decided to cover the top of the letters with Glossy Accents. It made the letters look and feel like part of the book. Can you see how they shine and reflect the light just like the cover of the book does.

It was a hoot watching her open it and go through all the items!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Picture to Chalkboard



Confession time.  My memory is terrible.  I'm all the time leaving myself little reminder notes.  I have a special drawer in the kitchen that holds pieces of paper and a pen, so I can quickly grab them to jot down what I need to do.  Problem is those little pieces of paper get lost, fly off into the unknown and usually disappear only for me to find them weeks later  (side note - I think the one to blame for stealing my notes is the little person who lives in our dryer and steals our socks.)  Anywho. . .  this small issue gave me a reason to make one of those DIY Chalkboards I keep seeing all over the Internet.  I have a large blank wall in my kitchen right next to the pantry that would be perfect for a chalkboard to keep up with all those lists of things I need to buy and do.

 

So, of course, I hit the thrift stores to find a large mirror that I could convert.  What I found was a large picture.  The frame is the right size and lightweight, so it would be easy to hang. 

 

It's current placement of the hanging wire thingy (very technical words here) wasn't going the right direction, but I'm sure I can fix that. 



 I liked that the back of the picture - it looked so nice and put together. 

My local hardware store had the chalkboard paint in a spray can and a paint can.  I *heart* spray paint and I figured it would go on the glass smoother than a brush/paint.  The man behind the counter insisted I needed primer and some of the sites I did my "research" said the same but you'll see a little on down the page that it didn't work out so well for me. 

I decided to take the back off because I thought it would be faster and easier to remove the glass and spray paint it (I was looking for a short-cut).  This didn't work out so well for me either.

The glass wouldn't come out easily and I feared breaking or chipping it, so I put all the cardboard stuff back in.  Now I don't have my pretty back anymore (insert sad face). 

Here I am taping it up to protect the frame from the spray paint.  So much for trying to save some time - not that this project took very much time.

I put the picture on a drop cloth in the garage and sprayed it with the primer. 

Remember my primer problem I mentioned earlier? . . .  well, right after I put a coat of chalkboard spray on, it started peeling.  Good news!  It peeled off in one big strip.  Very easy clean up.  But I had to start over - gggrrr! 
Using fine sandpaper, I went all over the glass scratching it up.  Although it didn't look like I had done much of anything.  The glass looked unharmed for the most part.  But I sprayed on the chalkboard paint anyway - NO PRIMER this time.  And you know what?   

It worked like a charm.  Here it is drying against the wall where I will hang it.  You can kinda see the bottom of a small picture frame I will be replacing with this large chalkboard.  Plus I redid the wire hangin' thingy so the chalkboard would hang the way I wanted.

Then I rub, rub rubbed the board with a sideways piece of chalk.  - - - you can kinda seem my aprons hanging on the door.  My favorite is the one with pink flowers and ruffles.

Now that the chalkboard is done, I can do away with all those tiny pieces of paper. 

 

 

What I learned - - -  the primer isn't necessary and I wish I would have left the pretty back on.  Not that it matters because only I know the backing isn't there.  Also, I need to wipe the board down with a wet cloth.  Although these pictures make it look difficult to read, in person it really looks fine. 

 

I'll definitely do this project again.  It was super easy.  It would be nice to have a super funky frame here, something really interesting.  Now that I know I can do this, I'll keep an eye out for the perfect frame.