Frogs and Princes...in Azeri

 

Kelsey, who is one of Nick's bestest friends, has recently been hijacked...by me.  She is originally from the town that I know currently reside in.  So we have taken advantage of our similar goofy scarf lovin' personalities and joined forces on a restaurant/booze tour of the surrounding area.  She has become one of my dear friends recently and am so lucky that she is stuck in northern Iowa. 

Just this week, Kelsey asked me to do a favor for her.  Wrack my creative brain for a way to display a sticker she obtained while in the Peace Corps...aka the third world....aka Azerbaijan.  The sticker is written in Azeri and says something to the effect of kissing multiple frogs to find a prince.  Kelsey bought a frame and gave me creative freedom on the endeavor and I hope she likes it...since I worked my patootie off for her!  Her only requests were no hearts or kissy lips and she wanted it to be classy.  Well, it is heart and lip free with hopefully a touch of class and a few subtle goofy elements that reflect Kelsey's essence.  

 

Step 1: Get a crazy friend willing to go to the third world

Step 2: Collect your supplies

Mine included the picture frame Kelsey got at Hobby Lobby. I wasn't a big fan of the color or the smiling fake people in the frame. I was thankful she gave me full reign of the project.

 

The next supply was the book that I planned to destroy in my attempt at Azeri greatness.  Not going to lie I felt wrong and dirty tearing pages out of a book even if it was a terrible book that I got for 10 cents at the second hand store in town.  I wanted to get something funny and this book had some hilarious parts.

 

Originally I wanted to get a super old book that was all yellowed and cracked with age.  Unfortunately, all the books were in good condition...seems like an odd thing to complain about, I know.  So in order to properly age the book I was destroying, I used distress ink (vintage photo) to make the chunks of paper look really, super old.

Mod Podge...you are the bain of  my existence and you smell.  But I made it through the trial of using this gunky mess of a glue without great incident.

 

Step 3:  Choose pages wisely

I wanted pages without a lot of text.  There were few chunks I used that are not simple to read once placed on the frame.  But the word 'poison' 'blood' 'lifesaving' and 'medical' are all easily read.

 

Step 4: Distressing your paper

You don't want me to try to explain this process.  Let's just say it's more complicated than slamming the stamp on the paper.

 

Step 5: Mod Podge your paper on the frame

This is going to take you awhile.  I covered the front and back of the frame with the paper chunks.  It is important to go over the finished paper with the mod podge.  I went over it twice...because I'm anal like that.  So just mod podge the crap out of that thing!

 

Step 6: Sticker and Cardstock meet up

This is the sticker that Kelsey brought back.  I placed it on some cardstock that matched the color of the lettering perfectly.  I used some of the distressed ink to give it some age as well.  I had to cut off the edges of the sticker because they were a little big but not much.  I made it lopsided as well. 

 

At some point in the process, I injured myself.  Man, Kels better appreciate this.

The final product:

 

This is it from afar.  The first picture at the top of this post is a close up that I absolutely love of the frame and the trim (Step 7).  The trim (1 yard) was cut and stuck on with glue dots I tore in half.  Each section of trim had three halves in various locations depending on necessity. 

Now my attempts to walk you through my crafts step by step are at the very least awkward and the most, confusing but I hope everyone enjoys this one.  I am so completely proud of this display of azeri/frog pride!