Lovebirds

My husband and I just celebrated our first wedding anniversary (woohoo!). Since we're actually fairly traditional at heart, we wanted to mark the occasion with something made out of paper.

I was randomly searching Etsy for something appropriate when I came across Dimdi's shop. She does amazing watercolours of animals and graciously agreed to paint one for me and my fella. We chose cardinals, both because they're very common where we live and because they mate for life (which is pretty good symbolism for a first wedding anniversary). Here's what she came up with:

Isn't it pretty? I love the detailing around the tails:

 

My only problem was trying to find the perfect frame for these little lovebirds. The painting is an unusual size -- 11" x 17" -- and the only frame I could find was the simple black one in the photo above. Nice, but not really special. But since it was super cheap (about $10 for a package of two), I picked it up with the intention of turning it into something a bit more interesting.

I had an idea in mind that I first learned at summer camp as a kid. All it involves is a bit of time, some glue, and a whole lot of twigs and sticks. I started by gluing a couple pieces of cardboard on the back of the frame to give myself a larger canvas, then I hot-glued a whole bunch of twigs onto the base. Finally, I hit it with some white spray paint. Badda-bing, budda-boom.

I gave it one coat of paint and ended up really liking the way some of the natural wood still peeked through. I also finished it with modge-podge to seal it and give it a bit of shine.

This was one of those projects that took a bit of time, but each step was actually very easy. I'm really happy with the way it turned out -- especially because the frame sort of thematically relates to the painting (you know -- birds, nests, twigs, trees, etc).

So, there you have it. A little nest for our first anniversary lovebirds.