A Special Keepsake
I finished this project awhile ago - but it actually took two attempts and I'm finally sitting down to write out the successful one.
When I got married we did an hourglass with colored sand.
Thing was - we had a LOT of extra sand... what would we do with it? I decided to make a monogramed frame. My first attempt was an epic fail (sand is surprisingly heavy). So pouring it from the old one to the new one was a little tricky and the pattern wasn't as pretty. But the point was to use our extra and actual wedding sand... not buy more. So I worked with what I had.
My original was a thin box frame with plastic sealing the back and then the back on top of that. I didn't get any pictures of the back - but you can see the plastic in the back in this photo. Sadly the sand started to leak from the bottom left corner pretty good. Each time I cleaned it up - more came out, the 'leak' got bigger, and I couldn't fix it without taking it apart and potentially ruining the whole thing. The back looked horrible - I could tell it wasn't strong enough to be able to work long term. I thought about gluing it shut from the outside, but what if that didn't work... the whole thing just didn't look strong enough with the back bowing and the sand getting lower as it leaked out.
So I got a "piggy bank" box - it was a slightly thicker shadow box that wasn't as wide - and
it had a slit in the top for you to drop change. I opened it up and got out my glue gun... if anything could seal this baby up - hot glue had to work.
First I glued along the glass on the inside and then I glued the back on - before and after putting it in place. Just to be safe I also put glue around the latches that held the back in place.
Then I placed a funnel in the coin slot and poured the sand into the new frame from the old one. I also had some extra glitter from some other wedding decorations - so just to add a little something extra to this one, I poured in some glitter too. After re-pouring - I filled the coin slot with more hot glue to close it up :) After all had cooled, I moved the monogram from the old one to the new one. The monogram was made of vinyl and stuck on the outside of the frame - directly on the glass. The way I lined it up, made the coin slot on the bottom so that it wouldn't be seen. Unfortunately using the same letters led to a few bumps - but I don't think it looks too bad.
It certainly doesn't have the same perfectly clean levels the original did, but there is still a design to it and I still think it makes a nice keepsake.
It was simple and fun - and the hot glue worked like a charm!
When I got married we did an hourglass with colored sand.
Thing was - we had a LOT of extra sand... what would we do with it? I decided to make a monogramed frame. My first attempt was an epic fail (sand is surprisingly heavy). So pouring it from the old one to the new one was a little tricky and the pattern wasn't as pretty. But the point was to use our extra and actual wedding sand... not buy more. So I worked with what I had.
My original was a thin box frame with plastic sealing the back and then the back on top of that. I didn't get any pictures of the back - but you can see the plastic in the back in this photo. Sadly the sand started to leak from the bottom left corner pretty good. Each time I cleaned it up - more came out, the 'leak' got bigger, and I couldn't fix it without taking it apart and potentially ruining the whole thing. The back looked horrible - I could tell it wasn't strong enough to be able to work long term. I thought about gluing it shut from the outside, but what if that didn't work... the whole thing just didn't look strong enough with the back bowing and the sand getting lower as it leaked out.
So I got a "piggy bank" box - it was a slightly thicker shadow box that wasn't as wide - and
First I glued along the glass on the inside and then I glued the back on - before and after putting it in place. Just to be safe I also put glue around the latches that held the back in place.
Then I placed a funnel in the coin slot and poured the sand into the new frame from the old one. I also had some extra glitter from some other wedding decorations - so just to add a little something extra to this one, I poured in some glitter too. After re-pouring - I filled the coin slot with more hot glue to close it up :) After all had cooled, I moved the monogram from the old one to the new one. The monogram was made of vinyl and stuck on the outside of the frame - directly on the glass. The way I lined it up, made the coin slot on the bottom so that it wouldn't be seen. Unfortunately using the same letters led to a few bumps - but I don't think it looks too bad.
It certainly doesn't have the same perfectly clean levels the original did, but there is still a design to it and I still think it makes a nice keepsake.
It was simple and fun - and the hot glue worked like a charm!
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