Kiss Me!

I made another set of frames for our mantle for St. Patrick's Day. I liked the ones I made for Fall and Noel so much that I decided to make some more. I was laughing with Dale that most folks with five frames for this holiday would probably spell out "LUCKY." Not me. Huh.

I didn't take any photos while making this. But the process was pretty easy.

1. I painted 4" wooden letters with green acrylic paint. The letters and paint were bought at Walmart. Note that the "K" was too wide, so I had to trim down two of the serifs so the letter would fit in the frame.
   
   Also, this time, instead of trying to use spray paint (that didn't work so well with "FALL," or a paintbrush like I did with "NOEL," I got a disposable mini paint roller/paint tray combo at the Dollar Tree. It's not good quality, but it did the job really really well. It was much easier to use a roller than a brush, and it did a fantastic job with coverage. Bonus: when the painting was done, clean-up was a breeze because I could throw the tools away.
    
2. I bought 5 black 5" x 7" at the Dollar Tree. I'd planned to use gold frames I already had, but the gold glitter background and the gold frames clashed. So I bought the black frames instead.
    
3. I placed some gold glitter Fun Foam in the frame behind the glass and replaced the back of the frame. I found the glitter Fun Foam at Walmart.
    
4. I glued the wood letters to the glass. I used a spacer (made from a piece of scrap paper) at the bottom of the frame so that I could get the placement of the letters centered correctly before gluing them in place.
    
5. I couldn't find any half-size wood letters, so had to try a couple ideas before I his upon this solution for "ME." I found a font on my computer that matched the font of the wood letters pretty well. I printed out the word "ME" in a few sizes to see which would work the best. Once I decided on the proper size, I carefully cut the letters out of the paper with sharp pointy scissors.
   
   I used a piece of sticky-back green Fun Foam for "ME." I traced the letters on the back of the Fun Foam, making sure that they were reversed (mirror image). Then I cut the letters out of the foam, removed the backing, and pressed them into place on the glass of the last frame. I added a little dancing leprechaun sticker next to the "E. The sticker was also from the Dollar Tree.
    
6. Before setting the frames on the mantle, I covered the mantle with some green fabric and some felt so the frames won't scratch the wood.

I'm quite pleased with the way it turned out. It was especially serendipitous that the green Fun Foam matched the green paint so well. From a distance, it's hard to tell that some of the letters are wood and others are Fun Foam. Better yet, if I want to make more of these frames for other holidays or seasons, I know I can now use Fun Foam instead of wood letters and the project will cost even less money.