12 years, 364 days

Did you guess that tomorrow Gordon and I will be celebrating thirteen happy, fulfilling, wonderful, interesting, life-changing years as a married couple? We're a team, we know that better now than ever. He's my best friend and I can always depend on him for good solid decisions. I might not always want to hear what he's saying, but 99% of the time, he's wRight. And that's hard for me to admit to him sometimes. Such is the life of two Type-A firstborns who marry.

Today, I have a project featured on the Momenta blog sharing one of the little gifts I made for my Sweetie. I'll share it here with you now, too, and then at the end of the post, I'll show you how I packaged this mini work of {heart}.

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I'm here today sharing a little something I've made for my husband. We are celebrating our 13th wedding anniversary tomorrow and I am guessing that he's thinking there's a strong possibility that there's a mini album in his future, as that is usually my go-to gift idea.

Not this year, though, baby. I shopped my stash and found this small art canvas to embellish with a handful of yummy sticker cuties from the Family Forever product line and then added the Green Puffy Glitter Alpha's to help this art canvas make a bold statement!

Using inexpensive craft paint and a sponge brush, I painted the canvas and even the sides, too, for a finished look. After the blue coat dried, I brushed on a light coat of lime green craft paint and let that dry before adding another light coat of the blue on top.

Want to know a trick? I paint on top of a sheet of wax paper so that my desktop stays clean. And the bonus is that the painted item doesn't stick to the wax paper, either, woo hoo! This photo shows that I decided to leave the sides of the canvas lime green.

Wondering what this is? I wanted to show you how I work out the placement of sticker elements. I trim around the letter or embellishment and "debut" it on my project before I actually stick it down. See the clear backing still attached to the Puffy Glitter Alphas's? And let me tell you, these Momenta stickers stick! Seriously, these are the best stickers I have used. No worries about them ever falling off this canvas, they are there for eternity. {Cute right, eternity and this is an anniversary project.}

And now the finished project. You'll see that I added a sentiment in my own handwriting and embellished the edges of the canvas for a little extra punch. I trimmed a section off of the 12" long Puffy Border Banner and adorned the corner of my art project and trimmed a flower from another Momenta sticker to bling up my handwritten sentiment.

And now to share with you the packaging of my canvas art to Gordon. I made my box, per the instructions included with my Martha Stewart Scoring Board. I have a serious crush on that thing. I used to use a ruler and my scoring tool, which sometimes resulted in uneven lines. Grr.  

Here's my finished handmade gift box. I used more Momenta papers and stickers to construct the banner embellishment. I trimmed a piece of patterned paper and folded it back onto itself to make a banner and used Glue Dots to under each flap to hold it in place. Using my scissors, I cut the "v" shape into each end and adhered to the top of the box.  The word stickers, together and forever, were placed on top of the banner and extending past the patterned paper.

And here's my canvas inside the box. You wouldn't have to use double-sided patterned paper, but it sure makes an impact once the box is opened! I used my trimmer to make my own shredded paper to nest the canvas upon.