Erica makes Alan & Melanie a sculptural picture frame.

I don't have a single picture with Alan & Melanie so I'll just begin this blog with a picture of our dogs.

I have been blessed with good neighbors throughout my lifetime. There were always friendly kids in the neighborhood when I was growing up, I never got cursed with wicked roommates in college and I've made friends with my fellow apartment dwellers in my adulthood. This past spring, one of my best friends moved into my neck of the woods. Since Alan, his girlfriend, Melanie, and their dog, Jameson, moved in about a block away, Athena and I have taken several walks for puppy play-dates and family dinners. Continuing in my tradition to DIY everything, especially gifts, I decided to make a special Christmas present for my special neighbors.

Jameson and Athena are best puppy friends.

One thing that Alan always has on hand at his house is good drinks. As I was browsing Pinterest earlier this year, I saw several projects that incorporated wine corks. I asked Alan to start saving the wine corks from the bottles that he & Melanie drank. I expected more corks, but this is all I got. LOL Using these, I made a tabletop picture frame. I'm almost 99% certain that Alan doesn't read my blog but if you're reading this now, STOP... it'll ruin your Christmas surprise!!

DIY Sculptural Picture Frame Tutorial-
       Materials needed: Styrofoam fabric, craft glue and Styrofoam glue, wine corks, clothespins, toothpicks

Puppy not required.

1. Measure and cut Styrofoam to desired size. I'm sure an Exacto knife or a more appropriate crafting knife would have worked better but all I had was a bread knife, which worked just dandy. LOL

2. Measure and cut enough fabric to fully wrap around pieces of Styrofoam.

3. Glue fabric onto Styrofoam as if you were wrapping a box. I used both craft glue and Styrofoam glue. I'm sure just using craft glue would have been enough but I fear my projects falling apart after use so I always over-glue. After gluing fabric onto Styrofoam, set aside to let glue dry.

4. Decide how you want to stack and arrange the Styrofoam pieces. Poke toothpicks into one piece of Styrofoam. Using both glue and toothpicks, connect the pieces together.

5. Glue clothespins onto toothpicks. Set aside to let glue dry. These will be used to clip photographs onto the sculpture.

6. Arrange wine corks around perimeter of Styrofoam sculpture. Leave space in between two corks for where you would like to poke the clothespins toothpicks.

7. Use craft glue to attach the wine corks onto the sculpture.

8. Clip photographs onto sculpture and write notes and memories to pin onto the Styrofoam sculpture. Memory board is complete!!