It's Make Your Own Art Time!

Sorry for the looonnggg delay between posts. Who knew being at home all day means you will be busier than ever?? Yes, so as many of you know...we are still trying to decorate our house. Well with one less income...it makes this a hard task. Art costs so much money! So...do like I do. Steal ideas and replicate!

We had this ghastly blank wall (hallway) that needed SOMETHING. I mean, it practically mocked me. Here I am supposed to be a creative person...and my walls are bare, naked, so alone! Something had to be done. So...I found this lovely idea online and decided to give it a whirl. So, here's my take:





1. Start by getting your fantastic father to cut up some of his free wood that is taking up space in his garage. He will say yes because he loves you! I got my dad to cut me 12" x 12" boards. And some 8" x 8" ones also (for another project which I finish up with here).




2. Take said wood and sand the edges so that your Palmolive hands won't get any splinters. Yes, those are gardening gloves. Don't hate! Be sure to clean off any sawdusty stuff left on the boards from sanding.






3. Paint the edges of all the boards black (or whatever color you choose). I let this paint dry until the next day's nap time. Besides, I spend time with the hubby at night. And what's the rush? The wall has been bare for this long!

4. I chose some neutralish scrapbook papers that were 12 x 12 to use on some of my boards as well as got some photos printed to 12 x 12. I was only able to get those printed at a scrapbook store. Go figure!


5. Take those lovely papers and photos you've chosen to grace the walls of your home and Mod Podge those puppies. If you are like me when I first starting ripping off ideas...err....finding inspiration from other crafty folks' blogs, you're probably wondering what the heck Mod Podge is! Well, it's a glue and a sealer. All wrapped into one lovely package. You can buy a big jug of it from Michael's for about $8. If you have their trusty 40% off coupon...then you are doing even better! I applied a generous coat of Mod Podge to the board and to the back of my paper using some foam brushes. Then I pressed it down onto the board and positioned it as square as possible...and smoothed it out. No bubbles. Voila!



6. No, you're not done yet. Day 3 naptime: I applied a coat of Mod Podge to the top of the papers to seal them. Once that was dry....(day 4 naptime) I applied another coat of the Mod Podge. Trust me. Wait. Don't glob it all on at once. Do nice even coats.

7. Once that is done and completely dry...you enlist the help of your handy hubby. Have him hang them on the wall since this is not your strong point. LOL And then you get something that looks like this!

Now...back to that little mention I made earlier about the 8" x 8" boards that my father also cut for me. I decided to do something similar for our master bedroom. So you have your 8" x 8" boards...and you have lots of scrapbook papers that coordinate well together, right? Well, what do you do next?

Follow steps 1 - 6 above, but obviously you'll have to cut your 12 x 12 papers down to 8 x 8 using an Xacto Knife and ruler.


7. Now that all of your 8 x 8 boards are Mod Podged, sealed and dry...we are going to take the advice of our 'lovely idea' blog from above and grunge them up. I used some brown acrylic paint...raw umber I think it was. Took an old rag and dabbed some of that brown paint on the corner of it and then rubbed it around on the edges of all the boards. I just kept rubbing it around and taking some off until it looked like something I could live with. Towards the last board or two...I could live with a lot less perfection than when I started. Hah

8. Once that dried...we decided to group all these boards together as one piece but was afraid that it'd be too flat. So we glued on some small cuts of wood (also compliments of dad) to the back of random pieces that had varying thicknesses.




9. After those dried...we glued all the boards to one thin piece of MDF, essentially connecting them all together! Note: We were a little afraid of 8 x 8 wood panels falling on our heads as we blissfully sleep...so we decided to use an air staple gun adhering the boards to the MDF as well. Added security, you know.

10. Again...have the hubbs hang it up and you got a beaut!