Birthday and X-Mas Gifts for Mother

I am very poor these days...in every way you might interpret that....

SO...

I made Christmas and birthday presents for my mom (she turned 55 on February 1st!!!)

Here are some pictures she took (I NEVER remember to take pictures of the things I make....mostly because I'm making them up to the VERY last second...)

  

The above images are a little drawer - storage - organization thing I made (altered) for my mom and her scrapbooking needs.  

She's very into the tropical - Jimmy Buffet - Caribbean - anti-MN-winter kind of style and doesn't have a lot of storage space so it seemed like a good idea.  

She seemed to like it - and she's a terrible liar - so I'm happy.  :)

1)  The main "structure" is from either Michael's or Jo-Ann's (I don't remember...) and I painted it with some acrylic paint in something called "Pool Blue" or "Caribbean Blue" or something....

The drawers are painted in various colors of equally inexpensive acrylic paints that seemed to fit the motif.

 

2)  The shells are from Florida, New Zealand, Greece, and the $1 store (not EVERYTHING can be authentic....)

3)  I decoupaged the inside of the drawers with Mod Podge and paper that is definitely from the $1 store.

4)  The bottom drawer is also "lined" with some can slices I made from polymer clay - I wanted it to have extra weight.

The other "big" project I made her was this picture frame -

 

That's my mom and dad in Hawaii in 1982 - I was about 18 months old and left at home when this picture was taken....

I just so happened to get pneumonia while they were there - my poor mom ended up having to come home early.  She ended up being pregnant with my little brother, Jonathan, anyway, so it's probably for the best.

Anyway, I got the frame at Michael's - it was sold as-is for about $1 because the glass was missing.  I used glossy varnish to protect the picture (no worries - it was not an *original* - it was a scanned version).

1)  I painted it with some random acrylic paint

2) Used a kids' set of crafty sand in orange, black, and white to make a normal-looking-sandy color sand...

3)  ...and glued the sand to the frame with Matte Accents.

4)  I added a cocktail umbrella from a package of them that I got from the Salvation Army...

5)  ....and some "vintage ephemera" from Making Memories...

6)  ....and some EK Success *Cloud Stickers*

You can see more of my mom's pictures here.  There are lots of me being terribly dressed....