I was wandering through a store the other day that I love that has mostly religious items. I was just browsing, not looking for anything in particular when I ran across the most adorable framed quote. I don’t know if it was just something I needed to hear that day, or if I really did LOVE that quote that much, but I found myself wanting to splurge and purchase this quote for $24.95. I stopped myself and thought, “NO way am I going to spend that much!” I dug into my crafty self, and decided to get home and make myself one that I liked even better. I used to not really follow through on threats (to myself only, of course) like that, but this time I did. By the time I got home, I had it all planned out in my mind.
One thing I love to do in my scrapbooking is mix and match alphabet stickers. I love to mix different fonts together. I used to feel the need to use only matching letters, but now I mix them up and it gives my pages a more eclectic feel. I first started with trying to decide where I wanted to hang this quote. I instantly thought that it needed to be somewhere I could see it often. The quote was something that I wanted to remind myself of often. It read,
“Enjoy the little things in life, for one day, you’ll realize, those were the big things.” -Author Unknown
I decided on hanging this quote in the living room. So, as I surveyed my living room, I picked out two main colors that I wanted to use for this quote. The colors are orange and green. So, I chose papers from those two colors, and two papers that would compliment each other as well. As with most of my layouts, I also decided to stick with all black and white letters.
I already had a frame at home that I wanted to use. So, I had my space defined for me. This helped me in deciding how to place the words and letters. I chose which words I wanted to emphasize, and which ones were a little less significant. For a project like this, I find that the easiest way to go about it is literally one word at a time. However, you must keep in mind how long your quote is, and whether or not you will be able to fit the whole quote in the space allowed. No gluing until you are sure it will all fit!
I chose to place the larger letters all going in a horizontal direction. However, to make it more fun and creative, some words I stacked on top of one another, and other words, were spelled out vertically. Some letters I backed with the orange paper, and others I placed directly on the main page of paper.
After I had it all laid out, I then decided to glue it down. As I looked at my frame, I decided it needed a little something to dress it up a bit. I got some black ribbon and glued it to the top and bottom of the frame to compliment the black and white letters. Then, I topped it all off with an orange button, and a green button. Finally my project was done! I loved it, and I love looking at it to remind myself of what is truly important.
Next time you are at your favorite craft store about to splurge on something and you think to yourself, “I could make that!”, you’re probably right. And, you should follow through because the satisfaction of looking at something you have created will be far greater than just thinking about the money that you spent.
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