Mothers Day Present

I want to start by saying that i didnt think about making this an ible until about half way through it so not every step was pictured. I made this for my wife so i can give it to her on mothers day this sunday, she has always like it when i made something as a gift versus buying something, it makes it more special that way. Its pretry simple to make provided that you have the tools available. We only have a few days left till mother's day so lets get started!

I work at a fabrication shop so most of the materials and all of the tools were readily available ( with permission of course) here's a list of the tools and materials you will need.

Materials:
1. 3/8 inch steel rod
2. Black and red spray paint ( or any other colors you like)
3. Canvas( I bought one already friend but you can bring your own if you like)
4. Acrylic paint for kids handprints.
5.gorrila glue( or any other means to mount your rods to the canvas)

Tools:
1. Welding machine (i used a stick welder but mig will work also)
2. Bench vice(not pictured)
3. 4-1/2" grinder with wire wheel and cutting wheel.(or band saw instead of cutting wheel)
4. Framing square
5.welding hood
6.welding gloves
7.saftey glasses

I dont have specific measurements for the rods that make the heart and the letters i just took a piece that was already cut and took it from there, the outside frame however is 18-1/2" long x 8-1/2"wide

Get the setting on you welding maching set up, weld a spare rod and get it how you want you finished project to look

For the heart i just clamped the rod in the bench vice and grabed one end and pulled, surprisingly enough it actually bent round shaped i did 2 halves and then welded it together

For obvious reasons I couldn't get pictures of the welding process. i started with the heart then welded the letters to it. Then weld the rods to make the frame around the whole thing

After youre done welding, let it cool off use the wire wheel to clean up your welds, and start painting use the masking tape to protect different colors from over spray

This was the hard part, since its supposed to be be a surprise for my wife and i cant take the kids to work...put the acrylic paint on the kids hand and press it on the canvas, the print inside the heart is my 1yo daughters' and it was very different to get a good print because she found it amusing to try to grab the canvas while i was trying to press her hand on it, let the prints dry, i let the boys write their names in their prints with a white paint marker and for the babys print i plan on writing "mothers day 2016"

Finally mount your metal to the canvas (im still in the process of this my self) and let it settle if you use some type of adhesive, make sure it wont fall off if it gets hung on the wall.now that . Its done wait untill mothers day and surprise your mom/ wife with it the best oart is that its special because you and your kids all took part in making it for her.

Hope everyone has fun making this and that their mothers/wives enjoy their hand made mothersday present, let me know what you thing or if you have any suggestions on changes or mounting maybe it could be changed before mothers day