happy happy to my best friend

this post features one of my favorite projects i’ve ever done. last month, my husband and i celebrated eight years of wedded togetherness…and to be completely honest, by the time our anniversary comes around (on january 24), we are both kind of at a loss for what to get one another. we’ve just hit christmas and birthdays for us both, so the list and ideas are kinda tapped by the time the anniversary arrives. and, this year was a bit more delicate from the gift standpoint, because i wasn’t going to be in town on our anniversary. (oops. work trip.)

i like to tend towards the thoughtful for our anniversary. and this year i had an idea….we’ve been together a total of fifteen years, and in those fifteen years, there have been a lot of special dates that we’ve shared. combine this thought with the special gallery wall we’ve been developing (see the previous post on this here), and i had an idea. memorialize all of those special dates in some way that combines with my love for craftiness.

the idea: add to the gallery wall with a piece of art that calls out those special dates. i started by picking up another re black frame with white mat from target (in size 5″x7″ opening). and then i hit michaels for some scrapbook papers in various greys and whites…i wanted to do something that stood out against the white mat in the frame and that complemented the grey-ish, purple-ish color on the walls in our family room.


the frame. in its pieces and parts.

next up was sketching out the idea. (i just have to callout the awesome audrey hepburn notebook my mom gave me for my birthday. just a simple notebook, but it’s become my crafting idea organizer/sketch pad. love it.) we’ve had so many dates that have meant so much, and surprisingly, i 1.)remembered all of them, and 2.)they fit in the area i needed them to fit in.


i pulled out my trusty cricut, and picked out the font cartridges i wanted to use….making sure to use a variety of fonts and styles to break up all of the dates. i went with some of my ol’ standbys: plantin schoolbook and alphalicious, and varied up the normal and italic fonts and sizes.

(note: when dealing with numbers, i learned a valuable lesson: size and font format matters. the first set of dates i cut out were way too small and in a format that were way too thin…everytime i tried to peel the numbers off the cutting mat, they ripped. so, i re-grouped and went with a different font format to give me a little more oomph to the letters.)

i simply cut my grey scrapbook paper in a 5-1/4″ x 7-1/2″ size, and cut out my numbers from white scrapbook paper. (another hint: i’m kinda obsessed with not wasting paper when cutting, but in this situation, i highly recommed cutting at least two sets of everything you are cutting – i.e. two sets of each set of dates. this gives you some wiggle room if something tears when you’re peeling off of the cutting mat.)

to adhere, i used my glue pen (since we’re dealing with such small numbers) which worked great. (another hint: use tweezers to place your numbers. much, much better than trying to use your hands, no matter how dainty your fingers might be.)

to finish it off, the piece went into the frame for the final, finished product. and i have to admit, i couldn’t contain my excitement to give this to my husband before even photographing it. and, in typical me fashion…i had the frame in its permanent place within about ten seconds of giving it to my husband. it adds something extra to our ever-growing gallery wall of memories.

the finished piece. it’s now been officially included as part of the gallery wall.

enjoy!
ashley

p.s. in case anyone is curious about the dates on this special piece, here’s their significance:

1.18.79…my husband’s birthday. without him, i’d only be 50%.
12.18.06…the day my husband graduated from grad school. for anyone that’s lived through that, you know/understand why it makes the milestone dates artwork.
1.11.79…my birthday. because without me, my husband would only be 50%. 🙂
5.7.01…the day my husband and i graduated from undergrad. from separate colleges. and the day we moved in together in indy.
1.24.04…the day we officially became an us.
4.20.09…the day that changed us forever. the day our little man arrived.
10.21.96…our first date.
2.8.04…the day our furry little son was born.
12.28.02…the day my husband asked me to be his wife. a day i’ll never forget.

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