My Photo Wall

I have been wanting a photo wall in my home for just over 2 years. I had seen them on a few blogs, and was in love with the idea. We had just moved into a home that a great wall up a staircase and I had big plans for it! I started collecting pictures and frames for it and then I found out I was pregnant. A birth of another child meant that there would be more pictures to add. I pretty much put my project on the back burner, only getting prints as I found them free online. After Adam was born I was anxious to get going on it again, but really lacked the time for getting it together.  In January of this year we decided to move again! UGH. But the new house is perfect for us, and it has a GREAT wall for my project!

Not a great shot, but its all I have of the before. Its.A.BIG.wall.

But as soon as I saw this wall I was anxious to get started! I pulled out the baskets of picture frames I had all set aside and started painting!

I decided to paint them all flat black, and I just used the cheapest black spray paint they had at walmart. I think it was $.97 a can. Worked great! Next time I do a project with this much spray painting involved, I will invest in the sprayer that attaches to the can, my finger was sore for a week!

I spent the next week going threw all of the prints I had collected and matching them up to the frames, ordering more of Adam and more recent favorites of the kids.

I have so many wonderful shots of my kids that it was really hard to decide

Waiting to be hung

I spent several hours laying them out on the floor trying to find a good layout, because they were going UP the wall and not accross the wall it was harder to get a good Idea. I then started useing papers in the size of the frames and taping them to the wall to get a good idea.

I thought this was working great, my husband, however, didnt agree. And when it came time for him to start hanging them it ended up that we didnt place them where I had layed them out.

Here is part way threw. I should mention my husband informed me that he hates when I post pictures of him on the internet when he is wearing sweats and looking "like crap". I say "PSSSHHH"

Here is our "finished" project. (before I got the level out) There is plenty more room to add as the kids grow! There are a few white frames on there that I hadnt intended to use that I needed as fillers, but they will be painted black as well.

Im quite proud of this wall, and My photos of the photos dont really do it justice. Of the 35 photos that are on the wall, only 5 of them were taken by someone other than myself. Im also quite proud to say that this wall cost me less than $40 to accomplish. Most of the frames I either had on hand or collected from various garage sales and such. Of the few that I did purchase, I payed less than $1 a piece for on clearance. 

I got all of the prints free or deeply discounted from online promotions as they came about. I spent about $9 on spray paint!

This "j" is a little project I threw together at the last minute for the wall, I will share that soon as well!!

 

I am still here.....somewhere, under all these boxes!

I cannot believe its already March. Where has this year gone?

"Hello, 2011?....Can you hear me?....PLEASE slow down!"

We had been toying around with the Idea of moving for a few months, and at the end of January we found the perfect house.

So since then I have been packing, cleaning, moving, unpacking, organizing, and this last week DECORATING! My favorite part! I have actually been working on a HUGE project this week, I cant wait to show it off! I started this project just about 2 years ago! And its Going on the wall TOMORROW!!!

Along with all the moving stuff, Ive been busy trying to sleep train my 7 month old, trying to get him to take a bottle. There hasnt been too much sleep on my end in the last few months. Once I *finally* decided that I was over not sleeping very soundly because there was a little baby in my bed for at least 60% of the night, and I convinced myself I was prepaired  for the 2-3 sleepLESS nights it would take to get him settled and into a great sleep pattern I finally began my battle.Well, 3-4 sleeepNONE weeks later....Battle seems like to nice of a word for what this little guy is doing to me. Im EXHAUSTED to say the least. He is just really not a sound sleeper, he is restless and wakes himself so often by his own movements. He is too big to swaddle, and really would not have it anyway. And Im about ready to fashion some device that safely attaches the pacifier to the babies mouth for the entire night.



Ive been keeping myself busy during the day trying to get this house decorated wall by wall. There are A LOT of BIG walls in this house. BIG walls, that I have always wished for, so many Ideas....Now that I have them....Im at a loss, well, maybe not a loss for ideas. a loss of time, and money, and sensibility.

So that is pretty much what I have been up to in my absence.

Stay tuned...I have great things planned! (Sleep isn't one of them I'm sure!)

Mod Poge Picture Frame

This has been sitting in my drafts for almost 2 months, because I KNEW that I took the pictures, only I couldn't locate them on my camera or iPhone. I was really starting to think I had lost it, until today when I was taking pictures with the camera I keep in my diaper bag.....and low and behold there they were. ::sigh::

I actually made this picture frame for a good friend of mine. She and her husband adopted an adorable little boy last February and in November the adoption was FINALLY Final! They had a finalization party and all though gifts were not expected I just felt I wanted to make them a little something!

The "B" stands for their last name-Barber

Anyone who knows me knows that I love when gifts have meaning, and I especially love a hand made gift or something that has been handed down. I love to give hand made gifts as well. 

This gift was a fun one because it was F.E.C. ( fun, easy & cheap) And WE ALL love all three of those things! And I also love that cheap doesn't have to look or feel like it. When its made with love and thought the price is neither here nor there.

Let me walk you threw this rather easy process! I assure you many more of these will be made for my friends and loved ones!

Gather up your supplies, Frame, letters, paints, brushes, papers, and Mod Podge.

The frame is a 12x12 with a spot for a 5x7photo from Michael's, they come in many shapes and sizes. The 'B' is from there as well!

I chose paper that I had on hand in my scrap booking supplies that I knew would coordinate well with the Nursery. And pained the entire frame the blue color I mixed out of my paints I had on hand, to coordinate with the paper I chose!

While I was allowing the paint to dry I cut my paper to fit my frame. They were both 12x12 but I wanted to see the edge of the paper on the front of the frame, so I ended up taking off between and 1/8- 1/4 inch on all sides of the paper. Once The frame was dry I lined my paper up how I wanted it to lay on the frame and Flipped it face down on the table while I removed the opening to the frame and removed the plastic. ( I did not get a pic of this part) Once I removed everything I traced the opening of the frame onto the back of the paper. This allowed me to use an exacto knife to cut out the opening in the paper. I also ended up going about 1/4 inch more on this line as well so some of the blue could peak threw.

Once I finished Prepping my paper I began the mod podge process. I Spread a nice thin, even coat of it all over the front of the frame and allowed it to get a little tacky before sticking my paper on.

Once you place your paper on the wet surface make sure to smooth it out with your hands to avoid any bubbles or wrinkles that could appear

Let that set up for a bit to make sure the paper wont move during your next step

Once your sure your paper is set, you can apply your first layer of mod podge over the paper.

 

I always about 2 or 4 coats. I make sure to let each one dry in between. at least for a few hours. In my hose this usually ends up being a day! 

While you are in the process of your mod podge layers, you can paint your letter or what ever it is you are choosing to adhere to your frame. This took me many layers of paint to get the right color variation and texture I was going for, I ended up doing a lot of dry brushing and in the end it came out perfect!

Once you have done all your layers, and painted your letter you are ready to glue. I used Gorilla glue this time, But next time I don't think I will. While the gorilla glue has a great hold, it tends to expand while it drys and ooze out the edges. so if you don't have something very heavy to hold down your piece with, you will get dried glue bubbles.

And there you have it! A finished product!

linking up to:
www.craftomaniac.blogspot.com
www.thediyshowoff.blogspot.com

www.betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com

www.sumossweetstuff.blogspot.com

www.toolsareforwomentoo.blogspot.com

www.makingtheworldcuter.blogspot.com

www.madincrafts.blogspot.com
http://beckieandbrad.blogspot.com/

Fun with letters project!

I was looking for a cool wall piece that I could create for Adams wall. It needed to be inexpensive, but it needed to be something that stood out, as well as something that I could see staying in his room for a long time, not just threw babyhood!

I love all the Ideas I have seen where people take pictures of architecture that resembles letters and so that is what I set out to do. But after a month or so of never leaving home with out my camera and still only obtaining one OK letter I was starting to get discouraged.

Then I found the *perfect* frames for my project

They look like they just have black matting in them, but its not its the glass that is painted black. They were on clearance at Michael's for $.75 each. and there were ONLY 4 left. It was definitely a sign! They were meant to be part of my project!

Well once I got home I was so antsy to get this project on the wall I started scouring the web for images of letters. I finally stumbled upon a FLICKR site that I regrettably didn't bookmark :( and found some awesome letters! I then did the unthinkable and saved them to my computer and had them printed at my local target!! (actually this person gave you permission to use there images as long as you don't take credit for them!)

The colors really go well with the room, and I love the rustic-ness ( is that a word?) of each letter.

here is a better shot of them, ( oh look theres my tiny tornado)I think they look great on the wall, and I really think that this will be something that will be able to stay in his room with him as he grows!

This project cost me $3 for the frames and $.40 for the prints. And is SO FAR my favorite frugal design! This one will be hard to beat!


be sure to check out THESE link parties and all there great ideas!

Nana's happy Day preperation -Part 2- Birthday Banner

While I had planned to have this party outside since we had been having BEAUTIFUL fall weather here in Sonoma County, Mother Nature decided otherwise. I hadn't planned much in the way of decorations but since we were moving this shin-dig indoors, I decided I needed to do something! I have seen these banners all over blog land, so this was in NO way my very own invention, only my design! They are Super easy and actually fun to make!

First thing, Find a font you love, I used Curlz MT, which worked perfect for my 'seussish' theme but was really actually kind of a pain to cut out. 

Type out your signage in word or what ever program you have and blow it up to about 300% and bold your letters if you like. Then print out your signage on card stock and start cutting! This was a tiedious process, I did a few letters each time I nursed threw out the day.  At this point, also print out any shapes and numbers you may want as well, I did "2" and A star! 

Then cut out your "flags" I just used a random assortment of card stock that I had in my scrap booking supplies

 And then I did some smaller flags in regular scrap-booking paper in random prints, glued them to the card stock and then glued the letters to the paper!

The best part of my theme this year was that because it was "seussish" imperfection was KEY. it gave all of my projects that special something!

I used scrap-booking eyelets to connect each flag to the next, and In between each word I used a star shape with the number "2"

I think it turned out Fantastic, and in all honesty its November 2, and its still hanging up. Every morning when Savanna Comes down stairs she says  "oh happy day nana" 

I plan on taking it down....at least before she turns 3! 

I'm actually going to keep this for next year and replace the 2's with 3's!

Frugal home decorating - Halloween edition

I love decorating my home, it is one of my favorite things to do. But as we all know all the looks we see in the PB catalog are usulally out of our budget, So Im always striving to make my home look as good as I can with out breaking the bank. As many of you know 'dollar store decorating' is all the rage right now in blog land. I have been inspired by so many wonderful Ideas, I hope to start Linking my crafts to there wonderful blogs as well!

Here is My first official "Frugal" attempt at decorating. Just so happens it was just in time to play host to some Halloween Decorations.

I was in the dollar store on the look out for some vases and candlesticks to make into some apothocary type decorations for my guest bathroom. I lucked out and found two cute hurricane type vases along with candlesticks. I also grabbed a few cheap halloween decorations while I was there!

I went home and started my project right away,

I used gorilla glue super glue, It worked great and dried clear! After letting it dry for several hours upside down they were ready to get filled up with goodies!

I spray painted some florists foam to use to fill up some of the space in the jars, wrapped it with some orange fabric that I had on hand and placed the skulls and a Giant spider inside the jars!

and here are some of the rest of my Halloween decorations! my personal fave is the rug in front of the toilet! With having the fabric, spray paint and glue on hand the rest of the materials cost me only $5, and the vases will be great for every season/holiday!