Framing memories

Our living room is the front half of our house and we have high ceilings, so the walls are big. And until a couple weeks ago, they were big and blank. I wanted to frame D's artwork, so I went to Michaels for empty frames. The cheapest I could find was an unpainted 11x14 for $15! What a ripoff! So my hubby came to my rescue. He bought some trim at Home Depot, cut it using Dad's circular saw, and tada! Handmade frames that are exactly what I wanted (and look fabulous to boot)!

We thought about stapling the corners, but we don't own a staple gun, so we went with wood glue. Originally hubby only bought one corner clamp but that took forever and the frames kept breaking, so I bought 3 more. After that, they came together fast!

 After the glue dried, I got to painting. I originally planned to brush paint them, but after running out of one kind and using another with a different finish to touch up (something I didn't know until it dried), hubby got me some matte black spray paint. So much faster and easier!

I cut cardboard for the backing and hot glued it on, then matted it with cork squares I had left over from my very first classroom. Then I got to hanging!

Aren't they perfect? My heart feels all warm and fuzzy when I look up and see D's artwork prettying up our walls!

Animal Silhouette Art

When Desmond was a baby, I framed some scrapbook paper patterns and pictures so he had something on his walls. That was before Pinterest. When I saw this on Pinterest with the suggestion, "Google (animal) silhouette, print on wrong side of paper, cut it out and frame it", I knew I had to do it. 

I think the giraffes are my favorite!

Aren't they adorable?? It was easy to find silhouettes of all of these animals (owl, elephant, whale, bird, giraffe), and to liven things up I matted them on colored scrapbook paper. They're now hanging in Adele's room. Aren't they cute?? 

Hit the Ground Running

Where do I begin? The turn of the new year seems to have sparked my creative genes, and I've recently felt the need to create, to let the things that inspire me lead me. And so (thankyoupinterest) I've been filling our walls finally, after nearly two years in this house.

Aren't my babies beautiful?

My first project was these fabulous canvases. I saw them here, and knew I had to make them. So easy! I found a 10-pack of 8x10 canvases for $12 at Michaels, and snagged a 4-pack of 6x6 squares too. I couldn't resist! I followed the same steps. First, I painted the edges black, then let them dry. Then I applied a layer of ModPodge and put the photos on. When that dried I finished with another coat of ModPodge to seal them. I love love love the way they turned out, and will be making more!

For our family name below the canvases, I found the frames (5x7) at the Dollar Tree for, you guessed it, a dollar each! I found the letters online here, but in the future I might take my own pictures of letters we find in our travels and replace them. I like it, but am thinking of fiddling with the spacing  and placement of the letters so they're closer together. Since they're hung using 3M command strips it would be an easy fix!