Idea for a birthday present

A birthday present doesn't have to be expensive to be appreciated, sometimes the time and effort you invest in it means much more than the number of $$$ you've spent.
There are lot of blogs, forums and sites where you can find great ideas and instructions on how to make some things yourself. The item you make or decorate doesn't have to be perfect, but the love you make it with will certainly bring a wide, happy smile on the recipients face ;)

Most of my friends already got my jewelry for their birthdays, so I had to move on :D

Here is the picture I made for my friends birthday (click on the photo for larger sized image).

First I bought a simple glass picture frame and some paper napkins. Acrylic colors,patina liquid, decoupage glue and gloss varnish I already had at home.

On my way home I was contemplating on how to arrange the paper napkins, which one to use to match the colors and motifs...

When I formed the basic idea on how this should look, I arranged everything on the frame to see if it would work in practice and finally got on to work.

With a small sponge I applied a first layer of light ivory acrylic color (it's recommended to use light colors for base, usually white) on the whole glass surface (it's better to use the sponge then brush because you get the even layer of color through the whole surface and there are no lines which you'll get when you apply the color with the brush), then I used my hair dryer to speed up the process :)
After that I started adding the napkins starting at the bottom. Here you can find decoupage instructions .
When I added all the motifs from paper napkins where I wanted them to be, I waited for a while for decoupage glue to dry.
Here starts the really fun part... I mixed some colors, hid all the edges and merged all the motifs in a whole. After another session with a hair dryer I decorated the picture with platinum white contour, applied some patina liquid (use the sponge) and in the end finished it with the gloss varnish.

I hope she will like it, I sure enjoyed making it :)