Pinterest: Recent Projects

I love Pinterest. It is by far my favorite website.
I have made several projects due to being inspired by things I've seen there. It's exactly what I need to get my creative juices flowing! (ew saying juices flowing sounds so...gross.)
The most recent projects I made were birthday gifts for my parents.
Historically I have had a struggle thinking of thoughtful gifts for people. I have a few friends (Melinda, Steph) that are SO easy to buy for because they love distinct things and they often mention what they love. I do that too. But most people don't love one certain thing or they buy everything they could possibly ever need or want, or they are SO picky or only have expensive taste, so it's hard. And that is where I find myself every time my parents' birthdays roll around (they are 6 days apart).
This year I was determined to gift thoughtfully and cheaply since money is not overflowing right now. I thought long and hard about their gifts and was very inspired.
The beauty of Pinterest is that you can pin ideas to inspiration boards and view them later.
The first idea I had was for my mom.
My brother, his wife and kids recently moved to Maui, living their amazing dream, but devastating my parents who desperately miss their grandkids. Brett, Neely and I live in San Diego which isn't as far away as Maui but isn't that easy to visit often either. Both of my parents, but especially my mom actively hurt for the presence of their kids and grandkids.
I had the idea of drawing map of Hawaii and a map of California. I then stitched a red heart over Maui and over San Diego to symbolize where my mom's heart is. I found the perfect quote for this project, "There are two lasting bequests we can give our children: One is roots, the other is wings.- Hodding Carter, Jr." I painted and distressed the matting inside of the frame and voila! Her gift was complete! The ONLY picture I have is below, a cell phone picture, because I thought I would be able to take a picture of it hanging on her wall if I ever visit her. Sadly the United States Postal Service broke the frame into a zillion pieces so the gift is in shambles. But she loved it all the same and really appreciated the thought put into it! And when someone appreciates your handmade item, there is nothing like that in the world!

The second project I did was for my dad. I knew I wanted to paint and frame some quote for him, I just didn't know which one. Since my dad is an author as well as a musician, I knew it had to be something about music or writing. I literally spent over a week googling various quotes, writing them down, and thinking about them, until I searched through my "Words" board on Pinterest and found the perfect CS Lewis quote. I decided to paint several vintage book pages and use those as a background for the quote. My original idea was to cut each letter by hand but with a toddler, time-wise that wasn't realistic. I experimented with running the quote through the printer (on each painted page) and I love how it turned out. Luckily his didn't get ruined in transit and he told me it's in his office.

I was very pleased with how it turned out and in the frame it looks amazing! I should have scanned it before I sent it, but oh well.
I don't know how many more handmade gifts I'll make in the future because it's a lot of work and thought and preparation and when things happen such as the frame getting smashed into pieces it is such a letdown. I was sad on the day they received the gifts, because it wasn't how I had imagined it to be, but I'm pretty much over it now.

Things I learned from these two projects:
- BUBBLE WRAP EVERYTHING BEFORE SHIPPING (which is a huge DUH but for some reason I did not. Hence the smashed frame.)
- Don't build things up in your mind

Have you made any projects lately? I'd love to hear about them! If not, get some ideas from Pinterest and get busy creating!