A Romantic Gift Idea for Your Spouse

Are you a romantic when it comes to things like Valentine’s Day?

Sometimes, I feel like that gene sort of skipped me ?. I did, however, pull off a pretty romantic gift for my husband last year and wanted to show it to you.

This print is called “Mates for Life” and came from Uncommon Goods.

(This is not an affiliate; I just linked it for your convenience. There are a couple of affiliates later in the post. You can find my full disclosure here.)

This poster showcases drawings of animals who have one mate for life and includes their Latin and their common names. It is a print that’s on really nice matte paper and I made the frame for it myself.

This is not where it usually hangs (it has a regular spot on one of our master bedroom walls), but the lighting is better here.

Here’s how I made this romantic gift for my husband:

I used some light weight wood pieces to make a frame. At Home Depot, they call it 1-1/2 inch x 1/4 inch pine lath. I cut four pieces of it to a length of 12-3/4 inches each and stained them a dark mahogany color. Be sure to stain all the sides and the fronts and backs of the wood because you can see between them a bit when the print is hanging.

2. To attach it, I taped the top of the print to the front of one of the wood lath pieces and then taped the bottom of the print to another wood piece.

3. Then I took a length of twine and added a few wood beads to each side (I added a couple of little feathers from Hobby Lobby, too) (similar feathers here) and hot glued the ends to the front of the wood piece just above the spot where I had previously taped the print. I used some beads I already had on hand, but if I made it again, I’d probably use a natural bead like these 12mm wood beads.

4. Then, I sandwiched the print (using 3M mounting strips) with the other piece of wood. The reason I went with the 3M strips was because I wasn’t sure if I would ever want to frame the poster differently. You can very slightly see the mounting strip in the photo below, but it’s not readily visible to the naked eye. You could always just glue the poster to the wood and then the wood strips together. For this, I’d consider using hot glue, E6000, or Gorilla Glue.

In the next photo, I (temporarily) placed it with another vignette….

I really like this print and it seemed romantic, yet not frilly, so it made a good gift for my man. Actually, I think this would make a great gift for his birthday, an anniversary, or even Father’s Day. But, I have to say, that as a woman, I’d love this print as a gift too.

And don’t worry if DIY is not your thing, Uncommon Goods also sells this print already framed.

*I’m not affiliated with Uncommon Goods. I just really like this print:)