As part of my husband’s birthday present (see post here), I wanted to create something personal representing his forte in “fur-parenting.”  At the moment, we do not have any human children, but consider our animals our babies.  This was a (somewhat) easy and budget friendly project that not only fulfilled that portion of the gift I was looking for, but also became a personal design feature in our home that we can treasure for years to come.  

I started out by going to our local TJ Maxx to pick up 3 frames.  Obviously, this can be done with any number of pets, but we currently have 3 fur-children:

• Mynah – the calico/tabby cat.  She is the “queen of the castle” and the oldest at 7 years.  I adopted her my sophomore year of college after attempting to only foster her…I never took her back to the rescue group.  She’s a complete snuggle bunny and loves to talk and have belly rubs.

• Donté – the older of our 2 dogs at 5 years.  I would compare him to Shadow from Homeward Bound.  He’s right at 100 lbs and is a shepherd/lab mix.  He tends to be the more “graceful and wise” one of the bunch and absolutely loves swimming.  Brandon adopted him while studying for his MBA at GCSU.  He’s also a BIG baby.

• Stella – the youngest of our 2 dogs at 4 years.  She’s definitely the “dog who cannot dog,” and would much rather hang out with the girls and chill than play fetch.  I blame this on the face that I adopted her while obtaining my Masters of Accountancy at GCSU, which was the only year B and I were long-distance (resulting in many more girl nights with my ladies).  She’s about 60 lbs, is a shepherd/lab mix, and is a complete mamma’s girl!

Once I decided on this eclectic mix of frames that compliments the blue/green decor spread around our house, I braved the paw print stamping.  I took several sheets of card-stock and some black craft paint and went to town.  The dogs were much more simple, as they are impeccably trained.  I just brushed the black paint on their paw, stamped a few times until I was satisfied, and touched it up with a small paintbrush after.

The cat was an entirely different story…let me just say, I highly recommend this as a 2 person project.  Poor thing was angry-meowing at me the entire time and the black paint ended up getting in the crevices of her tiny paws.  I seriously think if someone was filming me, we could have won America’s Funniest Home Videos.  Needless to say, we ended up in a semi-bath together and she hid under the bed for a good hour.  (She did finally forgive me after I gave her a good belly rub and a Fancy Feast.)

Lastly, I printed out their names, cut out the paw print painting, and glued it all onto a black sheet of card-stock (cut out to the size of the frame).  They turned out absolutely adorable and make the perfect meaningful addition to our hallway that we can cherish for years to come!