invictus.

so maybe only a handful of you liked my cake. it was a big hit with jack karl. it's just our sense of humor. we can't help ourselves. you should see our handshake...its awesome.

anyways...now that his presents are unwrapped I can show you what I made for him:

It's his favorite poem. and I just CAN'T resist hand making something.

got this 12x24 canvas for $9 at the craft store...

now. this is where I'm going to take a moment to chat.

i love my cricut and I love vinyl. but I was NOT going to sit down and crank out verse after verse.

it's called Patience.

and I don't possess it.

so i went to my word document copied and pasted the poem. chose a font I liked and made it big.

and printed that sucker out. it took about 1/10 the time.

since I knew that I would have to cut up the verses to put them all together I decided to do a random arrangement of paper for the background so you the words wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb.

I just trimmed up the pages..

and mod podged that crap all over.

after the first layer was down...I started adding verses....

after I took an exacto knife and trimmed off all around....

and I wanted the last verse to really stand out so I made it larger.

I did a final covering of modpodge to seal it all in..and then decided it need a little distressing...

black paint..

I just lightly wiped it around the edges and then rubbed it with a slightly damp cloth....

so my husband unwraps it...and goes...how did you make this.  I said. mod podge.

and he goes...oh...that is what mod podge does.

really? where has he been the past 9 years?

happy birthday lover!