Makeover Monday

I saw this frame sitting in my front hall closet last week and thought it would be perfect to makeover for today's feature. It was in the front hall closet because it didn't fit in with my decor anymore, so a few years back I threw it in there to "get rid of it". I'm sure some of you do the same thing. It's too 'nice' to throw it away, so you just put it away somewhere in case you might somehow like it again one day! Fat chance. But look, here's one instance where my initial instincts paid off. It's getting a new life! Woo-hoo!

You all know how much I'm loving my new fall designer papers. Especially this Heidi Grace/Harvest Flowers paper. It would go perfect with the colors in my family room--so that's what I covered the frame with. I left the sides of the frame uncovered. The original frame was crackled, so I left it as is but just put some Ranger Distress Ink over it in Walnut Stain. Worked perfectly. Aged it a bit and toned down the green crackled paint. The flower is from Doodle This. I stamped it twice on some Burgundy designer paper. I cut the flowers out, laid them on top of each other, and adhered them together using a fabric brad I had. Actually, the brad was really RED, but I painted it with my aqua painter and some Bravo Burgundy ink! It's amazing how well it worked! It totally matches the paper now! Love when that happens. I gave the flower a little sparkle using my Stardust Gel Pen.

The final touch was a green satin ribbon applied to the bottom of the frame. It balances the frame without competing with the flower at the top. For the inside of the frame, I stamped my Stampendous Agapanthus flower on a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock. I stamped it with some tan ink, but stamped off first, before I applied it to the cardstock. I wanted the flowers to be very faint. Then I stamped the verse from Beautiful Life over the flowers in Cranberry Crisp ink. I aged the whole thing with Ranger Distress Ink in Tea Stain. I love how it turned out, and plan to put it in my family room today!

I'll share with you one other item I made over yesterday. I happened to be reading a magazine yesterday and came upon an article in Ladies Home Journal (September issue) entitled The Pursuit of Happiness. Happiness is overrated in our society today. Trying to "find" happiness means we are relying on something 'outside' of ourselves to make us happy, which is fruitless. It can make us happy for a little while, but in the end, we'll be back on that elusive road, searching yet again for the next thing to make us "happy". The article goes on to state that the bible teaches us to aim for "joy". Joy comes from within and finding joy within ourselves takes the pressure off those people and things around us we rely on to make us happy. "Joy is inside you, a certainty of purpose and a hopeful future", author Rick Warren writes (Purpose Driven Life), when you trust that God is in control and working to use the good-and the bad-of our lives for a greater purpose. I decided after reading this article to create for myself a book where I could record my daily blessings in as I see them throughout Doug's unemployment. Instead of focusing on the bad, I will find the good. I will find the blessings regardless of the situation. I will strive to find my joy within as opposed to finding it from all the material goods I have surrounding me. This will be a real difficult thing for me to do. I think I tend to see the glass as half empty as opposed to seeing it as half full. I tend to concentrate on my have-nots instead of concentrating on what I do have. So I made this journal for myself to start recording in everyday. I had a cheap $1 notebook from Target laying around, so I altered it in about 20 minutes, and this is what it ended up looking like! I'll keep it on my table next to the chair I do my bible study from. Each night before I go to bed, I'll record those blessings from God that I experienced that day. I started last night, and can't wait to see what I write down tonight!

Hope you all have a wonderful day. I am getting ready to go work out at the club. Last week was a big bust as far as that's concerned. Doug's having coffee with his boss that got fired this summer. Not much else on the agenda for today, but that's cool.

Hugs,
Amy