It’s been a year since I met with my quad mom best friends for girl’s getaway in Gruene, TX.  Though we span three states, the five of us communicate almost daily and often multiple times throughout the day.   A few times we even Face Timed each other for “remote play dates”.  At the conclusion of our trip last year, we began planning the next one, which is this WEEK!  As our trip drew nearer, I decided I wanted to make a little gift as a token of our friendship.  I’m not the most artistic person and I cannot sew, but wanted it to be something handmade that was meaningful to the five of us.  Initially, I thought I’d make Sharpie mugs (thank you, The Cozy Old “Farmhouse” for the inspiration!), but I travel using carry on bags.  Packing four ceramic mugs in a carry on wasn’t ideal.  Eventually, I came up with a picture frame design commemorating our long distance friendships.

To make your own picture frame you will need:

• 4 x 6 or larger picture frame (I learned that flat front frames in light colors were easier to design)
• Sharpie markers in your desired colors
• Your desired designs printed from Microsoft Word or a similar program
• A pencil
• Clear tape
• Scissors

First, create a design template from Word using whatever font and clip art you’d like on your frame.  I wanted my design to reflect how our friendship spans three states so I used silhouettes of each state, but you could do whatever speaks to your friendship.

Next, press your design template onto a window with the font facing the glass.  Then, using heavy pressure shade over the design.  This will create DIY tracing paper unique to your design.

Once you’ve created tracing paper, cut each individual design out and tape onto your picture frame.  Then, using heavy pressure trace over the outline of each design with your pencil or a ball point pen.

When you are finished tracing, remove the taped on designs.  There should be a very faint outline of the designs.  It’s so faint you really can’t see it in my picture, but it’s there.

Finally, trace over the outline of each design using your Sharpie markers.  Voila!

For the girl’s picture frames I included a design of the three states where we reside then wrote, “Distance means so little when friendship means so much.”

For presentation’s sake, I printed some of our favorite group photos from our last trip to put in each frame.  However, I intend for them to update the photo annually.  I know we will have good shots for 2015!

hugs!

Amber

P.S. Stay tuned for details on our 2015 trip in Tahoe.  And if you can’t get enough of Four to Adore, don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest!