Using Wallpaper as Artwork

This tutorial for using Wallpaper as Artwork contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Affiliate, I make a small percentage when these links are used, at no additional cost to you.

I've been struggling with this wall in our guest room for a while now. Lo and behold, I had the solution close by the entire time...in an old roll of wallpaper. See how using wallpaper as artwork can be a cost effective way to get a big WOW factor for your walls.

If you need some budget-friendly artwork that packs a big punch, peel and stick wallpaper is a great solution. I used a roll on an old framed canvas I had in the storage shed for some instant art for our guest bedroom. See how I put this piece together below.

11 Unique Containers for Flower Arrangements

This post for Unique Containers for Flower Arrangements contains affiliate links. I make a small portion when these links are used, at no additional cost to you. 

I'm definitely not a traditional vase person...I love containers with character and quirkiness. And since my cutting garden has hit its peek and is overflowing with floral goodness, I've been using anything and everything I can get my hands on for arrangements these days. Check out my 11 Unique Containers for Flower Arrangements below.

I mentioned it earlier this season, but my garden took a big shift this year from mostly vegetables to mostly flowers (with a few herbs and a tomato plant or two thrown in). I've actually loved this and plan to do it again next year. Flowers are so much easier than vegetables and bring me so much JOY when I see them. They're practically disease free and the "cut and come again" varieties I've planted have kept giving me more and more stems all season long. Because of this abundance, I've been finding more fun ways to display and share these home-grown pretties. See my simple ideas for Unique Containers for Flower Arrangements below.

Gallery Wall Reveal {with tips and tricks for layouts, hanging, photos and more}

I finished our gallery wall and am really happy with the way it turned out. It's a simple gallery wall. I just used some tricks from my newspaper designing days to help me lay this baby out.

I'm a photo nut. Memory keeper. Mama-Razzi. I just love capturing moments that we can look back on and remember exactly what we felt/acted/did that day. I've been wanting to put together a gallery wall with some fuzzy feelings for quite some time. 

I picked up frames at both Ikea and Walmart and used some that I've had in the closet for years {the large one in the middle was put together by our photographer...I'm not sure where she ordered it from, but I can find out if you're interested}. It makes things easier to layout the design on the floor first. I snapped a phone photo and referred to it while I was hanging. 

The beauty of this wall is that it was fairly inexpensive. Some of the Walmart frames were as cheap as $3 each. But mixing them up with some nicer, "chunkier" frames and using my custom matte trick {explained below} helped them to look a bit more substantial and not so $3ish...{because let's face it, a $3 frame can look just like...well, a $3 frame}.  

Many of the cheap frames came with mats that I was able to dress up a bit. I did a post on this last year here {yes, that's exactly how long I've been planning this thing. Just taking my sweet time with it}. Looking back, I do think it's a little weird that I did an entire post on painting mats. Seriously, friends, thanks for sticking with me...even when I posted every little insignificant thing I was doing {today, I had cereal and a banana...what? You missed that post?}. I pray I've grown as a blogger since those days.

Keeping the mats all the same color {this color from Folk Art is called Sky Blue} helps tremendously with cohesion...especially since I used several frame styles. 

The frames that weren't black instantly became black with my trusty spray paint.

Again, this added to the cohesive factor since I mismatched my frames.

DISCLAIMER: I'm not a photographer AT ALL {so, please be kind if you think my lighting stinks or that I need a clue about my settings, you're probably correct}. I've taken a couple of photography sessions and refer to Kristen Duke's book *almost* daily. But I'm just recently branching out of AUTO mode on a regular basis on my DSLR. And most of the photos in my gallery wall are from years ago...some from FILM and {gasp!} disposable cameras.
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One other thing I did is totally my own taste and not all people are into it. But, I made sure all of my photos {except the professional ones} were in the same tones. I was going for a bit of a vintage look with this gallery wall. 

I can't tell you how much I ADORE The Coffee Shop Blog. I've followed her for eons...she's amazing. And has the most beautiful preset actions {that are FREE...I can't get over that} to download {it is nice to compensate her in Paypal which there is an option for on her site}. You can use her actions in both regular Photoshop and PSE. I'm showing you how I used the PSE versions today because I think PSE is a lot easier to use for most people {and it's super affordable if you're in the market for a simple photo editing program}.

The above photo is SOOC {Straight Out Of Camera}. I even left the chocolate frosting on his lip for you to see {he's definitely my kid}.

After cleaning up his mouth and then just ONE CLICK of an action {okay maybe two}, this is what happens with the Velvet Cream Action. Truthfully, I sometimes run two actions on photos...I always, ALWAYS use her 2020 Action and then if I'm feeling extra naughty, I'll throw a cool vintage action on top of the 2020 {like the Velvet Cream}. {FYI, you need to flatten in between actions}.

Some photo purists may balk at the vintage effects and all that. But, this just makes my heart go pitter patter. So creamy and dreamy. And flippin' EASY.

Here's a screenshot of the Velvet Cream action running in PSE 11 {it's WAY better than the previous versions of PSE...actions load lickety split. I pretty much download new ones weekly, so that's a good thing for me}. 
Let's not talk about the fact that from this screenshot, it's completely evident that I have over 9,000 emails in my in-box. I'm an e-hoarder, I tell ya. Drives the husband nuts. 

After printing my photos at Snap or Shutter-something-or-other {wink}, I prepped them and was ready to hang. I started with the biggie since it needed wall anchors to hang and would literally anchor the entire wall visually. Once it was in place, everything else would just flow around it. 

Honestly, it was on its lonesome for a few days before I got my rear in gear for the others. At one point, my youngest pointed out that it looked "nekkid" up there all by itself. Ahhh....a future designer, maybe? {Surely all future design enthusiasts say "nekkid" with a drawl}.

I laid out the rest of the wall using visual lines running throughout {I showed them with some red lines above...drawn in PSE after the fact}. Again, this is an old newspaper layout trick I used to use back in my newspaper designing days...but I think design is design and can be applied to all facets of life.  Keeping the edges and corners touching these "lines" creates a pleasing visual layout. If I were to have "floated" any of those frames in their own "areas" it would have broken up the cohesion. The "jagged" edges around the outsides of the layout aren't as "icky" as "trapped white space" would have been within the layout. 

Also, I worked hard to keep the layout really tight. All of my "lines" and space between frames are about an inch thick. Anything much more than that and cohesion breaks and things aren't as connected to each other. 

If you read all of the above and don't think I'm a complete OCD nut, God bless you. 

I really do plan to add a lot more photos to this gallery wall as well as one that will be on the opposite wall in this hallway {I plan to do that one in white frames with the same "Sky Blue" mattes...because I'm cray-cray like that}. It will have more extended family photos that are sitting here in a stack on my desk glaring at me with cutting eyes for not using them in this layout. Cray-cray, I tell ya.

Love the peeps in these pics.

Favorite pic {hands down} is the one of them on the bottom right in their dirty undershirts on the grody dog house wearing 1980s sunglasses. That was life as we knew it five years ago. Perfection.

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DIY Weathered Chevron Canvas {with tutorial}

This Weathered Chevron Canvas has been my little side project for a while now. If you follow my Instagram Feed, you know my recent quest to find out if I could weather canvas. And the verdict is in. YES, YES and YES. Canvas can be weathered {by hand}. You can all breathe a sigh of relief...I know you've been on pins and needles waiting to know. Well, at least my mom has been. 

This was actually a fairly simple project...just needs some considerable drying time between each step. Annnnnd...it only cost me $6 total. 

I often purchase canvases at my Goodwill. Then I just paint over them and do my own thang. Canvases at art stores can be quite pricey...why spend that much when a coat of white paint can make an old one new again? The above was what this looked like when I #PoppedSomeTags {yes, sadly, I kind of like that song...only because it's about my favorite pastime. I don't love the language. But I do like that he bought a broken keyboard. And I did invent that hashtag back in April. It's a thing now. At least, in my mind it is}.

I digress. 

After coating it with just one coat of white acrylic paint, I measured out and lightly penciled lines across it. There was no rhythm to this. I totally stink at any mathematical equation, so I'm not much help there. But I own a crazy awesome art ruler from the one year I was an art major in 1996. It's the one thing I took away from that year that I still use. And it helped me measure these out and space them to work well for the pattern I wanted. 

I used a double width of painters' tape to create my chevron. Then I smoothed my tape out like crazy.  

In order to prevent that annoying seepage, I used my fail-proof trick that I've shown you before. I went back over my tape with more of my white base coat to seal the tape down. Works like a charm. Every. Single. Time. 

{Let's not talk about the fact that I slightly messed up the pattern a bit on this edge in the above photo...I sanded it out later and weathered it up as best I could. Weathering covers a multitude of sins.}

All sealed up. 

After letting the "sealing" paint dry overnight, I used my black acrylic paint on the top to paint the actual chevron on. I accidentally used my gloss kind of acrylic here...it was what I reached for and, honestly, didn't even realize I had it. But, I'm actually pretty okay with the results. The different textures are kind of interesting.

 Peeling the layers is my FAVE.

After peeling all of the tape, I did the thing I thought I couldn't. I sanded canvas, y'all. And it flippin' worked. Like a boss, it did. 

The only regret is not sanding even more. I just took off a bit of paint here and there. And roughed up the edges quite a bit.  

To give it more of an aged look, I brushed some stain all over the canvas and let it sit for ten minutes or so.

Then I wiped it off, just to give it a slightly dirtied up look. 

It's easiest to keep using the same paper towel and wadding and re-wadding it. Once it's nice and soft and somewhat stain-soaked, it's really easy to work the stain around with.  

Super happy with the way it turned out. 

Details, details. 

I'm about to redo the hallway where my kids' bedrooms are located and plan to put this up in there, along with a gallery wall {that's been a long time coming} on the opposite wall.

What are your favorite things to makeover from thrift stores?

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Salt and Pepper Shakers Makeover #upcycle

Thanks to Goodwill, I got a new set of salt and pepper shakers for a little over $2. With a can of paint and a little love, I'm excited to have these cuties on my dinner table now. Super easy upcycle.

I'll start out by letting you know that our old set of S&P shakers were from my college years. And I was in college in the nineties. So...it was time. Plus, every time you actually shook the old shakers, a little bit of their metallic finish came off as well...right into our food. Yum.

Both pieces for $1.99. Woot, woot! They actually had about five sets of these. Kind of kicking myself for not scooping up all of them. How cute would these {the finished version} have been down my table at a dinner party? Darn it.

I bought this Rustoleum paint since it had primer already in it. Two birds. One stone.

Spray painting in a box is the easiest way to keep the ground {and your car} free from overspray.

After they were completely dry, I brought them into my craft room, errr, messy office, to polka. Dot, that is. I don't really have an actual craft room/space. I craft right here at my desk. If I could actually get my rear in gear and organize this entire room that my family graciously gave me to use entirely by myself for work, I may put together a fun craft space {in my head, I've designed it like five times, repainted twice and moved the furniture a dozen times. It's all good}. But, that is a few projects down the list...or maybe even on page two. I digress. 

Polka dots...

I brought out the fancy tools for this. You know, the end of a new pencil eraser. It was your basic dip into a puddle of paint and dot onto the surface technique. Zero skill actually required here.  

Then I brought them back out to the box to seal with this Valspar sealer {leftover from the ORB projects}. 

Ready to shake it up, baby. 

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Make Your Own Star Wars Canvas Art

We've been working to transform our younger son's bedroom into something less toddler and a lot more soon-to-be-six-year-old. We're in complete Star Wars mode. This Star Wars Canvas Art is one of my favorite parts of this new space. See how I created it below.

 

I decided to create a couple of simple art pieces for over each bed. Believe it or not, I was an art major for the first three semesters in college...then I switched majors...twice more (much to my parents' chagrin). While 2-Dimensional Design wasn't my strongest class way back then, I channeled my inner college art student and got to work creating some easy canvas pieces for the younger boy's room. It was really easy and anyone could do this. I basically created a simple line drawing and then filled it in with paint.

See the process below.

Goodwill Lamp Makeover #brassytosassy

As I showed you last week, we've been working in my youngest son's room to transform it into a Star Wars spectacle of sorts. The board and batten came together wonderfully...you can see the post on that here. I'm currently working on all of the details of the room. Lighting is top on my list...his previous lamps were from the boys' nursery and were covered in stars, moons and baby items.

About a month ago, I found a sassy brassy at Goodwill for $4.99.
I loooooove redoing lamps like these. I showed you the ones in my entryway here.

I did need to rough it up a bit to give it a bit of "tooth" to hold onto the paint.

Steel wool was a bit too rough and would leave too much of a mark that paint wouldn't be able to cover. So, I used the scouring side of a sponge to do the job. All I did was rub it with the scouring pad while the pad was still dry. 

Not quite as shiny...ready for paint.

This was the perfect paint for this lamp! I probably could have avoided the scouring step since this paint was intended for metal use, but I tend to be an over-doer on things like this.

I just use light and consistent sprays over and over. It took several layers to get it covered. But this way I avoided drips and got really even coverage.

Then I had one heck of a haul from Goodwill one day last week! Seriously...amazing! Not only did I find that birdcage for my fireplace that day, I stumbled onto this brand new Target drum-shade...only $7.93. Bringing my grand total for this lamp to less than $13 {I had the paint on hand...my stash of spray paint is completely unhealthy for any sane person}.

Loving how it looks in the room {red is going to be my accent color in here}.
That printable was from his Star Wars party last year.
I previously downloaded it from My Sister's Suitcase.

I can't wait to show you more progress as we move forward with more Star Wars craziness!

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