Makeover Monday

I was at the $1 store the other day and found this little shadow box. Isn't it adorable? And for a $1, you can't lose. I snatched it up and brought it home to give it new life!

Yesterday afternoon was spent at my in-laws going through all of Muriel's things. My job was to go through all her costume jewelry....man did she have lots of it! I was able to keep some of it for myself, but some of it was just so butt ugly it had to go to the little girls that live next door! It will be perfect for playing dress up! They'll love it. It was so fun to go through her jewelry boxes. But it was also hard. So much of her jewelry brought back bittersweet memories.

When I got home, I knew what I wanted to do with my new little shadow box. I wanted to put a picture of Muriel in it and if possible, a piece of her jewelry inside it as well. The picture I chose to put inside the box was the one I took of her and my FIL a few Christmas's ago. You've seen it on my blog before.

I first painted the front of the frame gold, to match the designer paper I chose to cover the box with. It is called Harlequin Romance and is made by Imaginisce. Once the paint dried, I covered each side of the box with the designer paper. I covered the back inside panel with the Harlequin paper as well. I distressed the paper with my Ranger Distress Ink in Walnut to age it up a bit. This process took all of 10 minutes, no kidding! Next, I matted the photo with some more Imaginisce paper, this time the pattern is called Timeless. I mounted the photo to the back panel using Mono adhesive glue. The sentiment, "cherish" comes from the Baroque Motif SU set. I stamped it on white cardstock and matted it with gold metallic cardstock. I used decorative scissors to cut around the sentiment. It's mounted with dimensional tape.

See the cloth tape measure next to the photo in the box? I got the vintage tape measure at a flea market a few years ago. Muriel was an seamstress so I thought it'd be the perfect touch to add to the box.

The pearls in this picture are Muriels. I wanted to put them in the box, but it's a long strand and wouldn't fit inside. I'll have to find something smaller instead. As much as I like this shadow box, I don't love it. I feel like it's missing something, maybe on the outside? Does anyone have any good suggestions for me to finish this off? I'm at a loss. I could really use your help! Leave me a comment if you have an idea...

Saturday night was homecoming dance night here in town. Eldest Son looked handsome as all get-out, once again. Here's a picture of the handsome couple. They are just friends. He met her at church. Sounds like they had a great time. He's lucky he was able to go at all that night. About an hour before he was to leave, I received midterm notices in the mail. He's failing 2 classes and getting a D in another. I was furious!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I clearly did not win the Mother of the Year award for the next 20 minutes as I went on a rant of great proportions. Not my finest hour, for sure. I was THIS CLOSE to not letting him go to the dance. At that moment, life came crashing down on me, I was being given too much to handle in such a short time. The job loss, the death of Muriel, the failing grades. What, oh what, pray tell, have I done to deserve all this? A book I was reading in the church library the next morning helped me put it all into perpective...."this is the day that Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it" (Psalm 118:24). Regardless of my circumstances.

Hugs,
Amy