Crafting is something I LOVE to do. The problem, however, is that I tend to try to bite off more than I can chew. What I mean by this is that I start one project, and then have another project idea, and then try to do both at once. Usually, this doesn't work too well with my busy schedule. I've spent the last six months working on one or another of the projects you see below. Some took a couple weeks to finish, others a month, and some only took a day or two. Most of them I probably would have been able to finish in a weekend if I had made myself lol. Most of my ideas came from pinterest, so I'll attach the link to those pages and also include my own tips for making them. For today, I'm just gonna talk about my first project:
Project #1:
3x3 Scrapbook array
I had a giant wall to fill in our master bedroom and decided an array of square scrapbook pages I'd seen on pinterest was the answer. This is the link to the blog: http://jensidea.blogspot.com/2011/06/easy-art-blocks.html
My total cost for this project was about $20 bucks for scrapbook paper, wood, modge modge, and black paint.
I made a few adjustments to the intstructions she gives. Here's my tips:
1. Get thicker shelving board (mine was only 1/4 in thick and I had to gorilla glue small pieces on the back to drill holes into for hanging the pictures over a nail)
2. Scrapbook paper--just head to the nearest Walmart and look through their paper section. I found a coordinated packet of TONS of paper there for $5. Saweet!
3. Use a glossy modge-podge if you want a more dressy appearance. Our bedroom is all silver, blue, and black. Shimmery seemed to fit best.
4. Paint the edges of the wood before you do the paper unless you want to play Picaso like I did: I glued paper down first, and then went to paint the edges black. Suffice it to say that my artistic skills weren't that amazing when I needed to fix a mess-up. I like how it looks now, but I wouldn't have had to add to the edges around the paper had I painted the edges of the wood before I glued down paper.
5. If you want your artwork to hang flat, then just drill a small hole, angled up into the wood, so that you can hook it over a nail. If you want to add dimension to your masterpiece, then add a few extra slivers of the shelving wood to the back before drilling. I just gorrilla glued, but wood glue wood prob work too. When you hang it up, be sure to measure out where each block will go so you don't fill your wall with holes. ;)
6. Have fun arranging the paper and don't be afraid to mix it up to be more random than I did!
Along with making the array, I decided to add a little green to my kitchen. I found the scrap book paper at Hobby Lobby and just followed the same steps as I did above.
This last picture is near our kitchen. I found sticky white-board block pages at Michaels and decided I could do something similar. I got thicker wood this time (about 1/2in thick) and just painted around with black like I did before. The nice thing was I didn't have to wait for glue to dry--it was kinda like whiteboard vinyl. :D
Anyways, this project is totally finished. I love how the arrays both small and large help to give the kitchen and the master a little personality. I hope you enjoy making this if you decide to try it! Don't be afraid to go smaller if you don't have wall space to fit one this big. :D I'll be posting another blog about my latest sewing project...the one that's still not finished lol.
