Christine's Crafty Corner

BEFORE

AFTER



So Steve told me to get a hobby. He has lots, I didn't really have any. So I started following looking for one.I knew I liked making our house/yard pretty. I love doing things for cheap, making them really personal to me and it does allow for some creative outlet too. With a little searching the web for inspiration and ideas I have caught the bug for homemade, refurbished, thrifed redone/reused DIY projects. My favorite spots for inspiration are pinterest, and two blogs called thepleatedpoppy.com and ourbestbites.com.

I have been trying since I bought this house to commit to art on the wall. I have only manage 3 pieces. One in the dining room (purchased before the house) is of poppies that I oddly fell in love with at Target because I'm really not into floral stuff. The next was a picture of a creek called "Duncan Falls." I purposed to go out and find a serene nature/tree picture and when I found out the name of the falls pictured, well I had to make the purchase. That went up in the family room. The last one is a gift. Giving art as a gift is risky, but my Aunt Suellen and Aunt Kathy picked out a piece for us as a wedding gift and I really liked it when we got it, and now I love it. So in 3 years, I have managed to hang 3 pictures in this place.

I have commitment issues when it comes to art. It's expensive and so I have to LOVE love LoVe it if I'm going to convince myself to buy it. In my crafty blogging searches I kind of fell in love with the idea of being able to display art in a pretty way, but the actual ART could be changed out. Lots of posts on this regarding displaying kids art. Well, since I have a commitment phobia with art, this sounded like a great thing for me.

Below is my interchangeable art wall. And it makes me happy. It's not for everyone, but I am thrilled.

I started by buying some ugly frames that had good textures and spray painting them yellow. I wanted COLOR. I don't like white/tan bland. I used the pot holder I had made years prior as my color palate inspiration.

Next was finding a way to arrange them on the wall. As you can see, I traced the frames onto newspaper and taped them to the wall until I found the layout that was visually appealing to me. This is a tip I picked up in the blog world somewhere I think of pinterest. Also the idea of painted empty frames came from there too. Really, there is not any original idea of my own here I don't think. I just took others' ideas and made them fit me. Anyhow... here is the "in progress" photo as the frames went up.


When that last frame went up, it just wasn't inspiring. Not bad, just didn't make me jump up and down and clap over the "cuteness" factor. But then I came across this:

at less than perfect life of bliss

But I wanted mine to be magnetic. SO off I went to Michaels and I bought myself a magnetic dry erase board and some chalkboard paint. The board didn't fit my frame, so I ended up having to take it apart and peal just the metal sheet off the backing to the original product and we (Steve helped here) glued it to the board that fits the picture frame. (This is where in the future the project could look more polished if I try it again, but I'm still pleased.)

Anyhow, here is the metal magnetic dry erase surface attached to the board from the picture frame. We sanded the glossy surface a bit before spraying the chalkboard.


(INSERT ANGELS SINGING!) LOVE IT! (INSERT CLAPPING FOR CUTE-NESS!!!!))))
The frames give me a fun place to hang my weekly menus to "glam" up the everyday life stuff. These are the first wedding pictures I've put up anywhere in the house. I'd love some quality prints of wedding shots someday to hang, but again, I can't commit to the ones I'm totally IN LOVE with. Someday. Until then, when I get tired of these, I can change them out for new ones! And I love the idea that I have a chalk board for notes OR can just use a magnet to throw up a recipe I want to keep handy for the week, an invite, or whatever. The organizer in me seriously screams with giddy joy at the versatility of how my magnet chalk board can be used to help me be organized. LOVE LOVE LOVE it.

Another pic just printed out on normal paper. The corners curl, it's not good quality, but it's up and I'm loving it and didn't have to have the pressure of money behind my decision of what pics I wanted to chose to put up, because they don't have to be forever.

And in the beginning, I wasn't wild about the black clip option of holding the images in the frames. But I saw them used in the picture above (the "home is where your art is" gal) and it worked. I was thinking ribbons with mini clothes pins or paperclips, but neither was working how I wanted. This works.

So there is the finished product again. Hope you enjoyed it :) I had fun doing it! And it turns out this shop we are creating out in the garage for Steve just might come in handy for this crafty side of me. I'm sure Steve won't mind pausing to help me create something CUTE, right?