Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Nurture your Closeness and Passion this Valentine's Day with a DIY Lover's Frame!

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #LoveOurVDay #CollectiveBias


This year my husband Paul and I will officially survive the "7-year itch"...hehe.
Our marriage is actually rather great, considering all of life's ups and downs but we've had our share of marital challenges with a few health scares, several relocations, stressful jobs and a child. Nevertheless, this summer will mark our 8th wedding anniversary, which means we're exiting the copper year and entering our bronze celebration (yes, we celebrate every wedding anniversary with the assigned gift). It also means, we want to start thinking about baby #2 before we keep getting older!
Anyway, for Valentine's Day, we'll be taking a few days for a much anticipated weekend getaway.
I wanted to surprise Paul with a manly-but-cute gift basket full of stuff we can both enjoy. So where did I go? Target, of course! I purchased several copper and bronze colored gifts (symbolic to both our outgoing and incoming wedding anniversaries), including a workout shirt, a coffee mug, wine, chocolates and K-Y® Love, sold exclusive at Target for Valentine's Day. By the way, there is a K-Y® Love 10% off Cartwheel offer going on through February 14. Get it here.
Then I shopped for materials to make a fun & passionate "Lover's Frame". The lover's frame basically was made up of romantic pictures of Paul and I followed by one-liner memories of things that only he and I would know about. I guarantee making one of these will serve as therapy and put a smile to your face in thinking of all the great moments you've shared with your sweetheart!


In order to make this Lover's Frame, here's what you'll need (keep in mind I purchased supplies at Target):
*Front loading 8x10" photo frame
*Tape
*Glue
*Scissors
*Burlap Roll
*Glitter paper
*Circle hand puncher
*Kraft Chalk labels & glitter clothespins for embellishing


The Target Exclusive  K-Y® Love can be found in the feminine products aisle

To make the gift basket similar to the one I made, here's what you'll need:
*Wire Storage Basket
*Mini copper buckets
*Chocolate with copper colored wrap
*White wine with bronze colored bottleneck
*Bronze-colored coffee travel mug
*K-Y® Love Sensuality Gel

In putting together Paul's basket, I arranged everything to have a the bronze and copper tones stand out. I figured the K-Y® Love Sensuality gel should be placed at the front of the basket to set the mood for our Valentine's Weekend and Eighth Anniversary Year!
Target also carries K-Y® Love Passion for your consideration ;-)

Hope everyone enjoys Valentine's Day!
How will you be celebrating with your loved one?

First, I wrapped the frame board with burlap and taped the back.

Then, I used glitter paper to cut thin strips and glue them on the edges of the burlap frame. I used the circle hand punch to cut out three - 2" circles. Then I decided to carefully cut an outline of tiny sun rays around the circles (The sun is symbolic to the summer which was the time of year we got engaged and married).


Next, I placed the circle sun designs around the main photograph, which also has a glitter border. I did this in order to measure and make sure they all fit perfectly inside the 8x10" space.

Next I printed romantic pictures and typed out several one-liners like "Tears in Cancun" and "Flashlight in Yosemite"-- both references to personal memories we have (In Cancun I was overwhelmed by the majestic pyramids and started bawling! Then during a trip to Yosemite, halfway through an evening hike, Paul realized he'd forgotten our flashlights!!...LOL)

 I carefully cut out the wording and the pictures and glued them to the sun borders. Then I glued everything to the burlap background.

My Lover's Frame!

En español

Este año mi esposo Paul y yo oficialmente habremos sobrevivido el “seven year itch” (referencia a siete años de matrimonio cuando se supone que ambos conyugues ya no se soportan y comienzan a pensar por separado).

Nuestro matrimonio es en realidad algo lindo, especialmente tomando en cuenta todos los altibajos de la vida. Hemos tenido un buen de desafíos matrimoniales con algunos sustos de salud, varios traslados, trabajos estresantes y un hijo. Sin embargo, este verano marcará nuestro octavo aniversario de boda, lo que significa que estamos saliendo del año de cobre e ingresando a nuestra celebración de bronce (sí, celebramos cada aniversario de boda con el regalo asignado). También significa que queremos comenzar a planear el bebé # 2 antes de que sigamos envejeciendo!

No obstante, para el Día de San Valentín, vamos a tomar unos días para una muy anticipada escapada de fin de semana.

Quería sorprender a Paul con una canasta de regalos varonil pero linda, llena de cosas para disfrutar los dos. Así que ¿a dónde creen que fui de compras? A Target, por supuesto! Compré varios regalos de tonos cobre y bronce (simbólico de nuestros aniversarios de boda salientes y entrantes), incluyendo una camisa de entrenamiento, una taza de café, vino, chocolates y KY® Love, de venta exclusivamente en las tiendas Target para el Día de San Valentín (La puedes encontrar en el pasillo de cuidado femenino). Por cierto, hay una oferta tipo ‘Cartweheel’ de 10% de descuento en este producto de intimidad. Consigue el cupón aquí.

Luego hice compras de materiales para hacer un divertido y apasionado "Marco de los Enamorados". El marco de los enamorados o amantes, básicamente se compone de imágenes románticas de la pareja, seguidas por recuerdos escritos en una sola línea sobre cosas que sólo él y yo sabríamos. Te garantizo que al hacer uno de éstos te servirá como terapia y el solo recuerdo de todos los gratos momentos que has compartido con tu amor te pondrá una sonrisa en la cara!

Para hacer tu propio marco de enamorados, aquí está lo que necesitarás (ten en cuenta que compré casi todo en Target):

* Marco de fotos, tipo carga frontal de 8x10 "
* Cinta Adhesiva
* Pegamento
* Tijeras
* Rollo de Arpillera
* Papel Brillo
* Cortador de círculos
* Etiquetas Kraft y pinzas de ropa de brillo para decoración

Para hacer una canasta de regalo similar a la mia, esto es lo que se necesita:

* Canasta gris de alambre de almacenaje
* Mini cubetitas de cobre
* Chocolates con envoltura de color cobre
* Vino blanco con cuello de botella de color bronze
* Taza de café, color bronce
* ‘K-Y® Love Sensuality’ Gel para la intimidad

En la elaboración de la canasta de Paul, organicé de tal manera para que todo aparentara ser de tonos bronce y cobre. Pensé que el gel K-Y® Love Sensuality debería colocarse en la parte delantera de la canasta para crear el ambiente de nuestro fin de semana de San Valentín y el Octavo Aniversario!

También hay KY® Love Passion para su consideración ;-)

Espero que todos disfruten del Día de San Valentín! ¿Cómo van a estar celebrando con sus seres queridos?

4 comments:

Michelle said...

That is such a brilliant idea! I absolutely love it. It looks like it would be so hard and fancy to do, but I think I could create this. What a great gift! #client

Unknown said...

You are such a lover, Anabel!! I hope you two enjoy your getaway!

Anabel Marquez said...

Thank you, Michelle! It's actually not as hard as you may think... Thanks!

Esme, I AM a lover! But I'm so bummed b/c I just learned our Valentine Weekend plans may have to get postponed!!! :(

Unknown said...

Turn that frown upside-down and into the inspiration for next week's "Romantic Staycation" post!