Mouse In The House
As I’m not so patiently awaiting the arrival of the pink flamingo artwork that I ordered on Etsy (I’m seriously on pins and needles awaiting its arrival…I assault the mailman just about everyday looking for my order), I decided to forge ahead and start working on some of the other art projects for the gallery to fill this open space on the parlor wall:
I need alot of art pieces for the wall gallery I have planned. It’s a pretty big space and I’ve pretty much maxed out all the old art that both Colby and I brought with us when we moved in. Instead of buying a bunch of new pieces (the flamingos are my only purchase…more on those when they arrive), I opted to “shop” our house and make art out of things we already hand. It’s a shame to hide memorable, keepsake items in boxes, never to be seen. One place we “shopped” was Colby’s old, wooden chest of drawers that’s chock full of old memorabilia from his childhood and beyond. We poured through the chest and found all sorts of cool stuff including these guys:
Who knew we were housing a pair of mice in our house? At least these rodents are of the cute, pretty, decorative kind. But aren’t they cool?! What’s even cooler is the story that’s behind them. This past Christmas, Colby’s mom sent them up to us in our Christmas present box. These guys are an old craft project by Colby’s grandma Dot. She made these gift tags out of rolled up, colored paper. I can’t even imagine the amount of time that she spent making these intricate gift tags. They’re absolutely adorable and the only thing Colby has to remember his grandma Dot (she passed away back in 1999 ish). They’re so precious and needed to be properly displayed. Off to the craft store I trekked for supplies.
I came back with two, white shadow boxes that cost less than $10 each, and a pair of linen like, textured scrapbook paper for the background, which rang in at $1 each. I didn’t really like the plain, cardboard background of the shadow boxes, thus the reasoning for the textured paper. I quickly upgraded the cardboard, and gave it a more sophisticated feel by gluing the paper to the background:
Once the paper was solidly glued to the cardboard, I folded up all the edges, carefully creasing the paper at each of the seams.
Then I attached the gift tags to the paper using a couple dots of glue.
Then added the mat, making sure everything was properly aligned and centered, before reassembling the shadow boxes.
And voila…a pair of art pieces.
I absolutely adore each of these mouse art pieces, but not as much as Colby. He keeps looking at them and saying “man…those things are cool”….translated to “awwww….thank you so much for such a sentimental piece of art…I think I might cry a little now”. They are ridiculously awesome and I can’t wait to hang them on the wall. Sadly, I’m refusing to hang anything until I have collected and framed every single piece that will be hung on the wall. I want to take my time and carefully arrange the pieces in the mismatched frame gallery. So I’m off to the basement to dig through old boxes and see what I can come up with.
Pssst…So winter FINALLY arrived this weekend here in Maine! FINALLY! I got a lot of really good shots of Goose playing in the snow. I may share them later this week. But it was such a great weekend to putter around the house and tackle small nagging projects while Colby brewed some beer and baked some bread. He’s not only handy in the workshop, he’s handy in the kitchen! So how was everyone’s weekends? Any other New Englanders out there like me who are excited to finally get some snow? Or just me?!
