Wine Label Collage, Take Two

For my father-in-law's birthday this year, I decided to make him a wine label collage. Being a huge wino, he has always commented on our wine label collage and said how much he would love one.

But of course, in true wine label collage fashion, the gift comes WAY after the date.

I sent a card to my father-in-law asking him to start saving his own wine labels that would mean a lot to him, so over the past six months, he and my mother-in-law have been saving, saving, saving. Go here for easy wine label removal directions!

Then, for Thanksgiving, they came with plenty of wine labels in tow!

Since it had been so long, I worked quickly to get it done before flying home to visit so we could give it to him then.

I started by laying out all my wine labels to get an idea of placement.



Then, using the good ol' Mod Podge, I glued each label down, and pressed very carefully to get all edges and corners down perfectly.



Since this was a gift, and I really wanted it to be perfect, I took a detour from the usual next step of topcoat with Mod Podge to first press the collage to flatten any potential bubbles.



I then did three coats of Mod Podge on top to seal, pressing with books between each coat for a full day to ensure it was as flat and smooth as possible. I used wax paper to lay the collage face down on to make sure it wouldn't stick but would have a nice clean surface to press on.



Unlike the one we did for our home, I did this collage in a regular stretched canvas (not a gallery wrap) and just adhered the labels to the edge instead of wrapping around the sides because my father-in-law wants to frame it.

Then, we wrapped it up for it's plane flight!



And yes, this was my carry on. There was no way I was going to dare to stick it in luggage!



Looks great in its new home! And I can't wait to see it framed!