DIY: Shadow Box Birthday Card

Project Stats:

What: Shadow Box Birthday Card

Total Cost: $8.00 CDN

Time spent to make it: 4 hours (due to drying time & picture formatting)

Special considerations: n/a

As you may know one of my nieces turned one on March 4th and I wanted to give her something that would last longer than a cute outfit or a toy that she would eventually get bored with. Mind you I did end up getting her an outfit from H&M that consisted of a cute polka dot shirt and dark denim skinny jeans. But one day as I was walking through Dollarama (a dollar store here in Canada), I noticed a wooden shadow box that would be perfect for some sort of project. That's when I came up with the idea of creating a shadow box birthday card for Khloe. So I thought I would share with you how I made my very first DYI project!

1. shadow box
2. acrylic paints **
3. styrofoam bowls

4. different sized paintbrushes

5. masking tape
6. hair dryer
7. paper towels
8. hair dryer
9. laptop
10. scissors
11. photo paper
12. ribbon
13. hot glue gun
14. patterned paper

** colours I picked were yellow, black and white (to make gray) so that it would match the colours of her room

The exterior: 
I started off with painting the shadow box white to act as my base colour. I think I had to do a couple coats to get it as opaque as I wanted it. The hair dry was used to speed up the drying processes because I decided to do all of this two days before her birthday party...oops! Anyway, once the white was completely dry I used the masking tape to mark the stripes that I wanted to add. To be honest I first tried to paint on a chevron print but that ended up to be a disaster. I tried to use a stencil that I found through pinterest, but it was meant for painting walls so it didn't transfer well with smaller surfaces. I continued the striped pattern all through out the box, even the front.

I wanted to make the card more personal to Khloe, so I decided that I would put her initials on the back. I had asked my sister to use her cricut in order to cut out "K" and "J" for Khloe Jaide and I used it as my stencile. Not only did using the the cricut save me time but it also saved me the difficulty of trying to cut as perfect as possible. This was my first time using stenciles and paints and man was it a mess. Thank goodness that I had a thin enough brush that it allowed me to clean up the edges of the letters (it also helped that my sister didn't mind the mess).

The interior:
Finally all the hard work is over! To be honest, I'm the most impatient person when it comes to arts and crafts so if you look hard enough you can see the colours bleeding into one another but I guess you can say that that's the beauty that comes with home made gifts. The inside of the card could be whatever you want it to be. I had first planned that I would write a "happy birthday"message but then I thought she wouldn't care for words so I just went with pictures. I had formated the pictures using the instagram filter that gave a polaroid-like frame and good old Microsoft Word. It was as simple as cutting and pasting onto Word and using the "insert shape" option to create the border. I just left more room at the bottom to give the final touches to the polaroid effect. Instead of getting it printed from an outside source, I just bought some photo paper from Dollarama and printed it myself. By adding handwritten captions, it made the pictures more like real polaroids. Lastly I created a miniature bunting to hang on either top corners to fill the space. All you need for that is a thicker more wire-like ribbon, some patterned paper and a hot glue gun.

The finished product: 
And there you have it! A hand made shadow box birthday card (and yes you can see my creepy reflection as I take a picture - don't mind that). The placement of the pictures is up to you but I'm a big fan of symmetry so that's how I arranged it. The backing of the shadow box is cork but instead of using push pins I just used a dollop of hot glue so that my sister could change it whenever she pleases. This project cost me a grand total of....$8.00! Like I said I got all the materials from the dollar store with most expensive item costing $2.00.

My sister was so pleased with the final product that she said she was going to cry. When I gave it to her I pointed out all the mistakes that I made and she said that it didn't matter because it was the thought that count. Her reation to the card was exactly what I wanted!

What's up, buttercup?

If you already couldn't tell "what's up, buttercup?" will be a weekly thing where I share with you what I've been up to for the past week. I didn't want anyone to think that I was running out of titles or anything =P

But anyway! Another busy week has come to end and there's no better way to end it than with the usual family dinner at my sister's house and their weekly dose of The Walking Dead (I stay upstairs because anything to do with zombies scares me). This week was focused on getting ready for Khloe's 1st birthday party so (as you have seen earlier) we were definitely exercising our creative muscles. We were also hit with that good old "day-light savings" time change where we move our clocks 1 hour ahead and man did I feel it this morning. But with no further adieu, here's a recap...


1. What my mornings look like if I'm babysitting & waiting for them to wake-up: coffee, breakfast, laptop and baby monitor. 2. Tried Turtle Jacks "pot roast grilled cheese" for the first time & it was pretty awesome! 3. I love to sleep in so mornings can be hectic therefore I end up doing my makeup in the car most of the time! Oops :) 4. I got to party with Minnie Mouse! ;) 5. Finished my very first DIY shadow box birthday card. Honestly, I was so close on giving up! 6. Today's weather was amazing! 11 degrees Celsius with sunny skies so I busted out my flats. 7. Finally a Target opened up in Canada! Unfortunately it was way too busy to really appreciate so I was not impressed :( 8. Lastly, ending my week with earl grey tea in my new polka dot mug from Wal-Mart for only $1!

Well that's all for now! Hope you had an amazing week and I'll be back soon! :)

Khloe turns 1!

My niece turned one on Monday and we're going to celebrate her big day this weekend. Just like all kids her age, she loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse so my sister thought that it was only right to have a Mickey and Minnie themed party. I had no idea that turning one was such a momentous occasion until I became an aunt and didn't realize the amount of work that goes into planning a party. There is still a lot of work to do but I thought I'd share with you what we have so far...


1. Customized water bottle labels that my sister printed from here. 2. Along with the water bottle labels, she was also able to print labels of all different sizes. 3. These black and white chevron paper bags are perfect for the candy bar and they were from a local craft store called Creative Bag. 4. Adding our own touch to the bag with smaller labels and good old double sided tape! 5. Mmmm...white chocolate covered raisins! 6. Different shaped glass jars + ribbon + labels + lots of candy = the perfect candy bar! 7. Custom bunting made by my other sister with the help of her cricut (the greatest piece of machinery ever created) 8. Late night craft worksop with some Tim Hortons coffee!
Hopefully Miss. Khloe Jaide, along with all her guest, likes all these things! I'm a firm believer that it's the little things that add up and make the big difference. Like I said, there's still a lot to do but I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and keep you guys updated!

Daily ramblings...

These past couple of weeks I have really invested time into this blog despite the fact it may not seem like it with the lack of posts. But I can reassure you that I have been exploring various other blogs to get a sense of where and how to start things up again. The only way to describe how I'm feeling right now is well...blog vomit. I have so many ideas, projects, pictures and thoughts that I want to share but I don't want them all coming out at once. Now a days you will find me either at a local craft store, in my study room or at a near by Starbucks just getting lost in the world of DIY's and blogs - formulating ways to express myself creatively.

There's something about sitting at a coffee shop with my notebook and laptop that causes my creative juices to flow...

What's up, buttercup?

The last couple of weeks has been pretty relaxed for me. I had knee surgery a couple of weeks ago (8 to be exact), and it has allowed me to spend a lot of time with family...mainly my nieces. They say being an aunt/uncle is the best because it's like you're renting kids for the day. You get to see all the cutesy things that they do but when things start to get ugly (for instance get cranky, poopy diaper, hunger), you can give them right back to their parents! But in all honesty, I love being with my nieces and any chance I get I try to capture their silly moments. So I thought I'd share what I've been up with them...

[Riley barely noticed the wings on her - Khloe out for sushi just two days before her 1st birthday - Jamie getting involved in some DIY birthday card - Riley colouring outside the lines - Albert enjoying Riley's tent more than her...]