My good friend had a baby back in September, and with the pace of life these days, I'm just now getting around to making something for the new baby. It's her third, so given that they already have tons of baby stuff, and they are very environmentally conscious, I wanted to give her something a little different, and using things I already had. I came up with this simple ABC wooden canvas, all using things I had in my studio (and for anyone who knows me, you know that there is no shortage of "things" in my studio!!). I bought the wooden canvas last winter, and had been hanging onto it until I thought of something fun to do with it. For the letters, I used black Stampin' Up! cardstock from my stash, and the QuicKutz Central Park alphabet (one of my all-time favourites!). I then replaced certain letters with shapes that represented that letter. I experimented a bit, and decided it looked best to go with all shapes of one theme, so in this case I used all animals. The central park alphabet worked particularly well, because the shapes I chose were generally about the same height as the letters. After cutting and assembling all the shapes (using all scraps of paper), I then adhered them all to the canvas with my Modge Podge. After it dried, I added another coat of Modge Podge to seal the whole thing. Finally I added a few small details - booglie eyes for the frog, a bling spout for the whale, and a coat of navy blue paint around the edge (I used Claudine Hellmuth acrylic paint in "smidge of blue"). There you have it, a simple homemade gift using all things I had on had on hand. Now I just need to make the accompanying card and get it in the mail (easier said than done!)
