Pictures, Pictures, Pictures

Welcome back DIYers! This week's edition is a great project is a cool way to display photos, especially in hallways and living rooms. I actually gave this to Shawn as a present for Christmas and it wasn't until a few weeks after Christmas that he realized I had made it, haha. Let's get started!

Supplies:

1. Pictures frames: Need one for every photo you want to display. I had seven. I got the frames for $1/piece at the Dollar Tree.

2. Curtain Rod: These were the pricey part of the project. The cheapest one I found at Target was $18, but it had a cool design on the ends! NOTE: Target is the only place I looked, so they could be cheaper at Wal-Mart and they may even carry them at Dollar General.

3. Hot glue gun and glue: You can purchase a hot glue gone for $5 at Michaels, Hobby Lobby, Wal-Mart, etc. They are actually pretty inexpensive and almost everywhere carries them. You should always have one of these around the house anyway because they come in handy!

4. Ribbon: I choose to use two different colors, but that's not required. I waited until the ribbon was on sale and got it for $1.50/piece.

5. Construction Paper: OPTIONAL. I decided I wanted to add a border to my pictures so I used construction paper. Cost: pack of paper for $1 at Dollar Tree.

Now that we have our supplies lets get started! The first thing I did was decide what pictures I wanted. Last year for Christmas I gave Shawn a scrapbook that I had started that had a page for every single date we had been on so far with a promise to continue that for our entire first year of dating. Well I did as promised, but it was VERY time consuming! So this year I wanted to be able to document something that was important in our relationship, but also do something different than a scrapbook. Back in September we had celebrated our 1 year anniversary by taking a trip to New York and Shawn had taken some AMAZING pictures. Seriously, they looked like postcards, he's pretty fantastic. So I picked out 7 of my favorites from the different places were visited during our trip and decided that would be my theme.

The next thing I did was choose the color of construction paper I wanted to use as the background. This is optional. I just wanted to add a little extra color to it so I used 4x6 pictures but got 5x7 frames so there would be extra space. Then I cut out the construction paper to fit the frame and used double sided tape to put the picture in the middle of the paper. (SEE above picture to see exactly what I'm talking about).

After I got all seven pictures ready in their frames it came time to work. I decided I didn't want them all to be in an even row, I wanted to mix up the heights of where the pictures were. So I played around with it for a bit. I put the curtain rod on the ground to get an idea how long the project could be and then I just started putting the pictures down. Some were close to the rod, some were far away.

Once I got to a mix I liked then came time to cut the ribbon. I cut the ribbon, making sure it was long enough to get to the frame AND also had about 1 1/2 extra to wrap it around the rod.

Once I cut the ribbon then I put some of the glue from the hot glue gun on the 1 1/2 extra ribbon that I put around the rod.

Then I pressed the portion of the ribbon with the glue to the other side of the ribbon so that it would be held up by the rod.

After I got the ribbon secured to the curtain rod then I put glue on the other end to secure it to the back of the picture frame.

After the first one, I just repeated that process until all seven of them were secured to the curtain rod. NOTE: I did not glue mine directly to the curtain rod, so they will move around. Shawn has had his hanging in his wall since around Christmas and once we hung it, that they have not moved. Here's the finished project before I gave it to Shawn....

My final thoughts: This project has so many ways to make it your own. For example, choice of ribbon, choice of curtain rod, choice of frames. I would love to do this again, but use a variety of vintage frames that all have a character of their own. You can also use different size picture frames. NOTE: one thing to consider when choosing a frame is how heavy it is. These are being held up by ribbon and glue, so they cannot be too heavy. Give it a try and be creative!!

Overall DIY Grade: A This turned out awesome and was VERY easy.

Good Luck DIYers. And don't forget, post comments, questions, and pictures of how your projects turned out! Also, feel free to request a project you have seen somewhere and wondered how easy/hard it was. I would love to try it!

Better Frame than window? Yes!

Hello DIYers. I know I have been MIA for awhile, but the Holidays and start of a New Year was a little time consuming. I was doing projects though so for the next few weeks I will be posting about the projects I did over the last couple of months. The first one I want to show you we actually gave to Shawn's mom for Christmas.

Lets first talk supplies:

1. Window Frame: We found ours at an Estate sale for $2.00!

2. Pictures for each window panel. You will need to measure the panel to see what size picture to order. We used 8 8x10 pictures. This was the expensive part because the pictures cost almost $30.00

3. Tape-We just used regular scotch tape and you can't even see it. Cost: $1.00

4. White paint. Just used regular white paint from Michael's. Cost: approximately $2.00/bottle

5. Crackle Effect Paint. Used to make it have that antique look. Cost: approximately $5.00/bottle

6. Paint Brush. Cost: $1 at the Dollar Store.

**REMEMBER: To watch the craft store sales and also to print off the coupon they have for 40-50% off one regular priced item!

Let's get started! Now the original color of my window was already an off-white color, so I did not need to put on a base coat. You may need to put one on for the crackle effect to work. If you do decide to put on a base coat then it needs to be a different color from the top coat for the antique look of the crackle paint to work. Since I didn't need a base coat I just put a layer of the crackle paint on first. NOTE: Before I began painting I had to deep clean this thing because it had clearly been hanging out in someone's garage for a few years. Make sure your frame is clean before you start painting anything!

You can make this as thick of a coat as you want. The thicker the coat the more crackle you will get. I did a medium thickness layer, so that you could clearly see that it was on there, but it was clumpy. Wait for this to dry before you put on the top coat of paint!

After the crackle paint has dried, I then painted the frame white. Again, depending on your preference and how you want it to look, you can do multiple coats or just keep it at one. I just kept it at one count because I thought it made it look older.

When it dries it will look like this:

After your frame is dry then you simply tape the pictures on the back and hang the frame wherever you wish!

NOTE: The finished picture is clearly not the white antique looking one that I have been showing you. Actually, the other side of this frame is the side that is painting white, but when we got it to her house we realized this color actually went better with her decorations than white. So you may not even need the crackle paint or any paint at all. This way though, she can always turn it over and have a white one if she ever redecorates!

My final thoughts: I LOVED this project and it was SUPER easy. Anyone can do this project. It turned out so cool. The only downside is that it is not always so easy to find a window to do this project. Believe me, there were quite a few other people on my Christmas list that I think would have loved this too, but I simply didn't have any more windows. The pictures were also expensive, but I think if I wouldn't have waited so close to Christmas I could have gotten better deals. Overall DIY Grade: A- (the - is only because of the difficulty finding a window and the cost of the pictures) Good luck and please feel free to post your finished project and ask any questions or comments! Happy Do It Yourselfing