House Keys and Some Love

For Valentine's Day yesterday I gave the husband framed art.... art with seven keys, house keys that is...

You see, seven years ago (on Valentine's Day) the husband proposed (love him) and since then we have moved seven times (still love him).  Now, don't get too excited... we haven't lived all over the world or anything.  Sometimes the next house involved just moving across the street!  None-the-less, these keys represent the different locations and houses we've lived, and all the memories that filled those homes.  We're getting ready to fill our seventh home with plenty of memories and are excited to get started -- soon!

Now, if you're interested in making something like this, it's really easy!  I laid out the actual keys on drawing paper -- paper like this, then traced the keys with a pencil.  After all the keys were traced in pencil, I removed the keys and carefully traced over the pencil lines with a metallic gold fine-tipped marker, like this -- the Prismacolor Art Marker (worked perfect!).  Then I wrote the address and date we lived in each house under the corresponding key.  Once the addresses and dates were written and ink was dry, the drawing part was done.  Time to frame!

I used regular brown kraft paper to function as a mat for my frame.  I cut the kraft paper to fit the frame, then taped my "key art" in the center of the cut kraft paper.  I put the frame back together and voila, great art with a personal touch!

We have seven keys in our frame, but this would look great with any number of keys, even with one key (first house, maybe?).  For one key, I'd make a photocopy of the key, then enlarge it to fit the majority of the paper, then cut-out the photocopied key, trace in pencil on drawing paper, trace again with marker, then put the frame together.  So easy!

The pictures above show the temporary holding spot for our new art.... we'll be moving in a few days (the seventh house) so the frame will soon have a more permanent place to rest.  Bring boxes and packing tape...