Turn A Thrift Store Frame Into THIS

I started by looking for a nice wooden frame at the thrift store. Then I headed to the men's section to find a shirt with a really cool pattern. Next, I had both of my kids write love you always on a sheet of paper. I wrote the words at the top as an example, and then I drew lines above and below to give them a guide for the size of letters that I was looking for. Now I placed a sheet of parchment paper over the handwriting and used my hot glue gun to trace each letter. It took a little bit of practice to get a nice, steady bead of glue, so I ended up tracing most of the words more than once just to give myself a few options for each letter. Once the glue dried I taped the parchment paper inside a cardboard box and took it outside to give those letters a light coat of black spray paint. While the paint was drying I cut a piece of the shirt to fit the frame backing and used a stapler to attach the fabric to the edges of the backing and secure it to the cardboard. Then I grabbed some felt from my craft stash and used some pinking shears to cut out a rectangle of felt for the lettering to go on. Now you're going to carefully peel the glue letters off the parchment paper and arrange them on the felt. I found tweezers to be really helpful for lifting the letters and pulling away any extra glue strands as I went. When you're happy with the layout, use a little super glue to attach each letter to the felt. Then glue the felt to your fabric covered backing, making sure that everything is centered. Slide your artwork back into the thrifted frame and that's it. You now have a piece of art that looks classic and beautiful, but it has so much meaning to it. I decided to hang my frame above my desk where I'll see it all the time. And honestly, it's already making me smile so much. This is such a sweet way to preserve your kid's handwriting and turn it into inexpensive art for your home.