MIY Monday: Personalized Picture Frames

I put together this picture frame a while back, and it was the first thing I made for our lil' guys' room. Once I decided on a theme for his big-boy room, I went straight to JoAnn's for my first project. Carson's room theme is something I call "Vintage Cowboys & Indians - meets - Old American Flag." So I picked up these supplies:

These wooden supplies at JoAnn's were very inexpensive, and I had the glue and paints on-hand.

The square wooden frame was already primed in white, but the star was unfinished. And I'm totally busted here - I used my kids' watercolors to paint the frame! I wanted a "wash" look, rather than a very opaque look. So I used their watercolors, and also used one color in water-based acrylic craft paint, which I watered-down to get the look I wanted.

If you want to make stripes on your frame, you can draw lines first, using a pencil and ruler, but since I wanted an old, imperfect look, I just free-handed my stripes.

Once the star was painted and dry, I attached it to the frame using Tacky Glue - love that stuff.

Voila! So easy. Now we just have to wait for him to be born so we can put his picture in the frame. You can make one for your kids' room too, no matter the decor. I have found lots of fun wooden shapes at craft stores and Walmart: cars, bugs, flowers, hearts, shapes, letters...

If you make one of these, please share with us - I would LOVE to see it. And by the way, this would make GREAT, inexpensive, and super-special gifts for the upcoming season!

If you would like to participate in Make-It-Yourself-Monday, please do! Leave a comment telling us about something you've made recently. You may link to a post on your blog so we can marvel at your work. Happy Monday!