Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Crafty Mom! ****Updated**** Now contains a picture of my project

I am normally not a crafty person. I don't mean that I can't be sneaky and sly, people, I mean, I do not 'rag' my walls (whatever the hell that is) and I didn't know what decoupage was until I was in my late 30's and I still have never tried it. And am not really sure WHY anyone would.

Now that does not mean that I do not appreciate those whose talents fall in the arts and crafts arena. Shel, who normally does her blogging on Yah Sure, You Betcha!, also has a blog on scrapbooking and I have been there and I have no idea what she is talking about. But everything is very nice. Many people paint, scrapbook, do beadwork, etc and thoroughly enjoy it and that is wonderful, but my interests have never run in that particular direction.

Last month when BabyBoy had his theatrical debut, I wanted to do something for him. Flowers seemed lame, since, you know, male. Not into flowers. So I wrestled with the whole thing and then contacted MustangBobby, because he is a playwrite and spends a lot of time in and around the theatre. He had the brilliant suggestion of having BabyBoy's program matted and framed. Genius!

But I went to the conference at Disney, came home to Thanksgiving and never got it done. I figured it would be ok, I would have it done for Christmas. No problem. Buy a frame. Buy a matt. Done.

Only finding the correct size matting proved impossible. So then I was looking at custom matting. $$$$$$$ And I wanted to get him more than just the one gift!

There had to be a solution.

And I found it. I bought an inexpensive 16x20 frame, poster board, construction paper, scrapbooking glue, and some really adorable scrapbooking thingys (I'm certain there is a correct term for them, but I have no idea what it is). BabyBoy's girlfriend managed to snag some pictures of him on stage and I set to work.

And this was work! Which picture should be prominent? What colors should I use? White background? Yellow? The red that was orange, I don't care what the sign said?

The entire thing took HOURS and more trips to the arts and crafts store than I made during the entire year I planned my wedding.

But it's done. And I am so proud of it! And I hope he loves it. I really wanted something that would commemorate his first role in a real play and that showed him how very proud I am that he is following his dreams. I don't know if I managed to convey all that, but I am very ready for Christmas morning when he opens it.


I hope you managed to find, buy, create that perfect gift for your loved ones. And I hope your holidays are the best ever.

The LeftLeaning household wishes you and yours Happy Holidays and a very, very Happy New Year.

5 comments:

Mustang Bobby said...

Way cool! I didn't go as fancy as you did, but I'll e-mail you some pics of posters of my shows and you'll see that they're cherished mementos.

Carl (aka Sofarsogoo) said...

Great gift, and one that he'll always value highly.

Not surprisingly, you're about 50 years ahead of me. Back in 1958, the theater department at the college that I attended put on one of my one-act plays. I still have the poster for it, yellowed but still intact and rolled up as always in a bottom chiffonier drawer. I always intended to frame it, but....

Anyway, best wishes to you and yours over the holidays and beyond.

Michelle said...

What a great gift idea. I'll bet your son loved it.

Scrapbooking is such an individual thing. The only advice I have is to make sure you use lignin-free products so they don't age (yellow) the photos. Most, but not all, scrapbooking papers sold in crafting stores are lignin-free.

Hope you had a very Merry Christmas!

Anonymous said...

Is flour lignin-free? When World War 2 broke out -- and you know how long ago that was! -- for a time I kept a scrapbook composed of the most curious collection of things cut from from newspapers that interested my very offbeat, juvenile mind.I couldn't get hold of any glue or mucilage, so I used a paste made of flour mixed with water. Because of that the scrapbook was later attacked by tiny, hungry creatures, but I believe it is still reasonably intact, though I haven't checked it in recent years.

LeftLeaningLady said...

Everything I saw was lignin-free. Even the construction paper said it was and added "great for scrapbooking" and I got scrapbooking glue. Who knows?

He does love it, though, and he showed it off all day on Christmas. So I did good!