I asked the hubs what he wanted for Father’s Day this year, and he promptly informed me he had emailed me some Car Talk comic strips that he would like put into frames. The hubs loves Car Talk so I defnitely needed to make this work! And it was going into the “man cave” a.k.a. the detached garage so it also needed to work well in there.
I thought about it for several days before I came up with my grand plan.
First I found a 14×20″ frame.
Then I gathered my supplies:
Remnant suede denim (I love the dark color for this project!) cut 14×20″
Printed comic strips
Printed sheet metal background found on the web and sized to fit project
This is a close up of the sheet metal printed on cardstock.
I love how realistic it looks!
To make it even more realistic (even though its going to be behind glass) I decided to emboss the sheet metal. To know where to emboss, I held the cardstock up to the window with the sheet metal side facing outside. I used a pencil to trace where the embossing would need to be done. I used a small embossing stylist and the back of a mousepad to do the embossing. And you can see the detail in the bottom photo above. (I only embossed areas that would be seen around the comics. It saved a lot of time not embossing the entire sheet!)
I used Scotch double-sided tape to attach the comics to the sheet metal cardstock and Beacon’s 3-in-1 adhesive to attached the sheet metal cardstock to the suede denim.
And it promptly went up in the garage! And right next to the poster of himself on his sport bike so he must have really liked it. 😉
It was a great Father’s Day here at the casa de McDonald!
I’m super lucky to have a husband who is such a great daddy to our boys. He loves to spend time with them, play with them, nap with them, and he’s certainly not afraid to get dirty (nasty diapers!). I couldn’t ask for a better partner to go through this experience with!
Confessions of a Stay at Home Mommy
Tuesday 28th of June 2011
I love this! I made a comic night stand for my hubby a while back. I would love it if you would link up to my Tuesday Confessional link party going on now: http://www.craftyconfessions.com/2011/06/tuesday-confessional-link-party.html. I hope to see you soon!~Macy
A Pretty Life in the Suburbs
Saturday 25th of June 2011
Very fun idea! Going to keep it in mind for when I redo my boys room! Thanks for the inspiration!Jo-Anna
The Answer Is Chocolate
Saturday 25th of June 2011
What a great idea and I can't believe you embossed all of that! Perfect Dad's day gift. Thanks for linking up!
Antonella
Saturday 25th of June 2011
What a great gift, so thoughtful! Your sheet metal looks so real!!! I linked over from MIM where I've also linked, hope you'll pop on over.Hugs, antonella :-)http://quilling.blogspot.com/2011/06/wondrous-wednesday-patriotic-printable.html
Jenn Erickson
Friday 24th of June 2011
What a wonderful, personal and meaningful gift. I absolutely loved the way you tied it all together with the sheet metal backing!