Finally! My Very Own Gallery Wall.

I spend a lot of time in my living room.  Especially this winter, with the crazy weather we've had...the couch, a quilt, and Netflix have become dear, dear friends of mine.  When I spend a lot of time in one room, my DIY wheels start turning and churning on what I can do to make it better.  Couple that with a trip to Europe and some fantastic art finds, and you're looking at a girl who wanted to create a super amazing gallery wall above her couch.

Yes siree bob, I caught the gallery wall bug.  For months, I've been typing in "gallery walls" into the Pinterest search box just to sigh and yearn over the beautiful walls pictured, hoping for one of my own.  You know what those sites don't tell you about gallery walls, though?  Unless you've got some serious DIY to do, they are E.X.P.E.N.S.I.V.E.  You really need a lot of art to occupy even a smallish wall if you want to have any type of dramatic impact.

You, dear readers, all know by this point that I'm going to create a gallery wall if I decide that I want one.  And I wanted one.  I won't make you read through my step by step process before showing you the finished product.  I'm too excited to wait.  Here it is!!!

BEFORE

AFTER!!!!!

WOW, right?  I'm so in love.  I keep standing in the doorway to the living room, just sighing with love.  If I could hug this wall, I would.  Yay!!

Ok, now for the deets.  Here's how I got this party started:

First, I gathered all of the art I was going to put on the wall.  Several pieces were ones I had just bought at a small antique book/map shop while in Amsterdam.  I had them framed, knowing they would be hung together on my living room wall.  I decided not to frame them in the same frames, as I wanted a look that said, "I've been gathered lovingly over time".  So, I chose frames and mats that complimented each other without matching each other.  

Once I got these home, I began the hunt for other pieces to include on the wall.  I pilfered a piece from the dining room, and replaced it with a new piece of art that deserved its own spot not on the gallery wall.  I also printed off a few snapshots from our travels to Napa Valley and South Korea, and chose one that complimented the rest of the art once it was all grouped together.  I had a plain wooden frame in the basement that got a quick coat of gold paint, and it was ready to go.

Painted gold with charcoal grey underneath.
Pretty much the same process that I did for my travel boxes.

At this point, I only had 6 pieces- I still needed more art.  Off to JoAnn's I went.  Not to buy ready-art, but to buy some canvasses.  All canvasses were already 50% off, and coupled with my 20% off the total coupon, AND the $20 discount I asked for because one canvas was slightly frayed on the edge- I got three deep mount canvasses for less than $20.  The 2'X3' canvas alone was $60 full price!  I don't play when it comes to craft discounts- that's serious business.

Never hurts to ask for a discount!  The most they'll do is say no!

Now, OF COURSE I already had acrylic paints at home- what DIY'er doesn't?  Using a few online pieces as inspiration, I got to work.  At this point, I am willing to straight up admit that I did not just dream up these pieces of art.  I'm creative, but sometimes starting a whole art piece from scratch is too tedious, even for me. There's sketches that have to be done, mock-ups, etc.  I just don't have time for that.  I was on a gallery wall mission. So, I used my inspiration pieces, my paints, and got to work on those canvasses.

Layers...

And layers...

And layers.  Here's where I put down the camera and really got to work.
No more pictures til the finished product.

Sorry, no step by step DIY instructions for this.  If you want some, go to a Painting with a Twist or Paint Party event. They'll let you sip wine and paint a canvas in the adult version of paint by numbers.  This isn't that:)

While my canvasses were in the process of being painted, I began to lay out my frames to see where I wanted them to be hung.  Before doing this, I measured the wall space that they would fill.  Several sites told me that nothing should be hung less than 10" from the top of the couch, so that was my starting point.

In order to keep my frames out of harm's/feets way, I used what little floor space I had in the guest room to lay out my pattern.  I used a few stand-ins for my big canvas, and began moving things around.  It probably took me two hours of moving pieces, walking away, coming back into the room with fresh eyes, moving things around again, etc, before I got everything where I thought I wanted it. 

Now, I needed a way to transfer this jigsaw puzzle of frames onto the wall.  I took a shower curtain and put it under the frames (with some cutting and taping to adjust it to the right gallery wall size).

Frames with a few stand-ins for sizing.

Next, I took a black marker, and traced the outline of each piece onto the plastic, and then hung the plastic on the wall with painters tape.

Be CAREFUL...don't get that marker on the frames!!
If you're wondering, this piece is a child's textbook map insert from Holland.
 It shows, in small picture form, the natural resources of the country:)

Using the black outlines as a guide, I was then able to make nailholes in the appropriate spots in order to hang each piece with minimal fuss.  Even with this step, I still ended up making one or two small changes once everything was up on the wall.  The plastic and outline tarp definitely made things MUCH easier, though.

Can you (barely) see those outlines?

So, here's my wall again.  Isn't it lovely??  I just can't stop staring at it.

Margot is becoming quite the little camera diva.

Sending a special shoutout to my "took five minutes to paint this" canvas of the Detroit skyline!

All of this art were less than $100 total.  The framing I didn't DIY?
Shh...we won't talk about that, alright?  My love for oddly sized pieces apparently knows no bounds.

A little lamp light romantic glow for you...I'm going to go blind from reading in this room in low light!

This is becoming a bad habit to leave you with a picture of Margot, but I'm going to do it anyway...she's my fur baby and I love her!  While she may appear to be giving you, dear readers, a disapproving look, she's actually beaming inside with pride for having had her picture taken in front of such a pretty gallery wall.  Seriously.

Yep, that's a piece of rawhide stuck on her nose.  Not classy, Margot, not classy.

Boxes O' Fun.

After Dave and I take trips, I like to create photo books with some of our best pictures.  For our bigger trips, I try to document each day's excursions, knowing that 5 years from now (heck, 5 weeks from now), I won't remember some of the great details of our day to day experiences.  Those descriptions get added in to the photo books, as well.  Snapfish, Shutterfly, Costco, Apple's iphoto...it doesn't matter which one you use- they all offer page options in your photo books for straight up full page text (diary style).  

The Adirondacks, Alaska, Amsterdam.  We are moving our way through the A's, apparently.
Next up, Azerbaijan?

While I love my photo books, I am left after every trip with a variety of postcards, plane tickets, event ticket stubs, receipts, and small trinkets that I want to keep, but don't necessarily want to display on a day to day basis.  Please don't tell me to scrapbook it.  I may do a lot of crafty things, but scrapbooking is NOT one of them.  I feel like scrapbooking is one of those things where you're either all in, or all out.  You can't half-ass a scrapbook, and the doodads and embellishments needed to really make it work can start to add up...CHA-CHING!

I saw a few interesting things on Pinterest that seemed like potential projects to solve my travel paraphernalia dilemma.  This, for example, was kind of neat, but it's not something that goes with the decor of my house.  Dave took one look at it while glancing at my computer screen, and scoffed at it.  

Fancy idea, just not my style.

On to the next idea:

Gotta give credit where it's due.  This one came from my girl Martha.

This one, I thought, was do-able and practical.  All I needed was some paint and wooden boxes.  JoAnn's, Michael's, and Hobby Lobby all have similar boxes to this,  so take your pick of where you'll go.  

I bought gold, brown, and dark grey paint.  I wasn't sure which of the dark colors I might use...
at a dollar a pop, they'll get used at some point!

First things first:  I unscrewed the latches on the boxes- they weren't going to work for this project.  I could have bought similar boxes without latches, but they would have been almost triple the price.  

The hardest part?  Hunting down that super small phillips head screwdriver...grr.

After taking off the latches, I filled the holes with some wood glue, waited for it to dry, and sanded.  I did this process twice.  Because the holes are so small, it only takes a few minutes for the glue to set, so this is a quick step.  You could also use wood filler, but mine had dried out- time to buy a new pot!

Fill 'er up.

Next, I took some charcoal grey paint, watered it down til it was the consistency of heavy cream, and did a dark wash on the boxes, both inside and out.

Remember- when a bit of water is added, the paint wash will dry in a lighter shade than it looks when wet.

As the dark wash dried and the clock tick tock tick tocked, I probably did something fun like washed the dishes or changed the oil in my car.  

Ding!  Drying is done!  See that super clever thing I did there?  Pushpins in the bottom to keep the box off of the table- makes it dry all the way around without drip puddles forming on the bottom.  SO SMART.

For the next step, I watered down my gold paint (slightly thicker than heavy cream this time), and painted just the outside of the box.  I let each box sit for a minute before using a few scrunched up paper towels to slightly wipe off the gold, allowing the dark grey to show through- I was going for a distressed, old gold, not really gold but kind of, you can still tell it's wood, but not stained wood, kind of look.  Did I succeed?

That's really neat.

After the boxes were completely dry, it was time to do some lettering.  I had an alphabet stencil, but decided against using it- I just didn't like the font enough.  I found a few ideas on how to transfer lettering, and decided to try one out.  

I printed my lettering backwards on a sheet of paper and placed it on my box.  I then wet down the paper, and used the cap of a marker to rub the backside of the letters, hoping to transfer the ink off of the paper and onto the wood.

I don't remember what font this is, or I'd share it with you.  Sorry.

No dice.  I read back through the instructions, and noticed that the website stipulated that I use an inkjet printer.  Damn it...I have a printer that uses toner.  Across the street neighbor Kristin to the rescue!  (Yes, we recycle names on our block- it's just too much trouble to learn new names.).  Kristin printed off my backwards letters on her inkjet printer, and I repeated the same process.

Not trying to pull a Rodman here.  Just visited south of the border.

This time, partial success.  I could see the lettering, but it wasn't very dark.  Ugh.  Looked like my "easy" project was acquiring additional steps.

The lettering was only visible in bright light.
The boxes are being put on a shelf with low lighting in front of it.  No dice.

Next, I tried to just trace my faint letters with a paint marker.  Utter failure.  I didn't even take a picture of this step- it was that horrible.  I do NOT have a steady hand, and my letters looked like a kindergartener did them.  I slightly sanded out the trace job, and wiped some new gold paint across my mess.  Good as new to start again.

I didn't want to give up on the font lettering I had printed out- I liked it too much to give in and use the stencil.  For my next try, I printed off my letters on heavy cardstock, and took the time to use a sharp knife to make my own stencil.  Yeah, this was starting to border on madness, wasn't it?  I used a foam brush to slightly tap some paint onto the box using my handmade stencil.  Success!!  (Mostly, anyway).

Oh man,  I should have dusted the shelf before taking a picture.  Yikes.
I'm not going back and photoshopping that out, though.  We keep it real at The Regular House.
And regular houses have dusty shelves.  Live with it.

It's not super crisp, but the more I look at the slightly wobbly lettering, the more I like it.  Gives it character (at least, that's what I'm telling myself).

While waiting for the lettering to dry, I found one more way of transferring this lettering that I thought I'd give a shot.  I glued a piece of wax paper to a regular piece of printer paper (waxy side out), and ran that through the printer.  Then, I used the cap of a marker to rub this onto the box, hoping the ink would transfer off of the slippery wax paper and onto the box.  No dice.  The entire internet lies.  This does not work.  Don't let anyone tell you it does.  Again, I didn't even bother taking a picture.  Just know that it failed.

So, there you go.  Some failures, and a "pretty good" success.  Now to fill my travel boxes with my leftover paper scraps so they're off of the dining room table.  Project complete, and the house has less mess.  Everyone wins.

Next up, it's a whole new shelf redo.  I mean, I can't leave the shelves untouched when they've got shiny new travel boxes sitting on them, right?  Right???

Cameras and Foam...a likely combination.

Happy Two Zero One Four, everybody!!  We're a week into the new year, and it's time for more DIY craftiness...I know you missed me.  I missed you, too.

Dave and I went on vacation over the Christmas holiday, and OH, WAS IT GLORIOUS.  No, we didn't do a beach in Waikiki, we didn't see the pyramids in Egypt, and we didn't hop along with the kangaroos in Australia.  We went to Europe, woot woot!!  More specifically, we spent our vacation in Dave's motherland..the Netherlands.  That's right, my 6'2" blue eyed hunk o'man lives up to the bloodlines of his ancestors who proudly stand up to the distinction of being the tallest people in the world.  Man, I got a crick in my neck just by talking to people the whole week!  

Sigh, can I go back?

Such a lovely time.

Before we left for this lovely and relaxing vacation, however, I had some crafting to do.  The night before we left, I began packing.  I am normally the worst suitcase packer ever, and usually attempt to bring my entire wardrobe with me where ever I go.  This time, knowing I'd be hauling my suitcase from plane to train to tram, I tried to downsize.  I managed to limit myself to one normal sized suitcase and a carry-on bag that held my purse, i-pad, a book, our travel documents, and the camera.  

Here's where the DIY comes into play.  When we go on vacation, Dave and I like to bring along the bigger camera that has several lenses.  Bringing along the camera bag, however, adds one more piece to carry.  Ugh.  I've seen various camera bags online that double as purses, and I've also seen some great DIY camera cushion inserts for purses.  Seeing as I had about T-12 hours before departure, buying a camera bag/purse was out of the question.  A camera cushion insert?  Totally doable.

I rifled through my craft closet, hoping to find some thinner foam padding, but alas, no luck.  I did have a thicker hunk of foam, which I figured would work in a pinch.  I also had a nice piece of fabric that I had just used for a small Christmas gift, and wanted to use it up on something cute.  Perfect!

I started off by stealing a few knives from the kitchen- a bread knife and a steak knife.  Feeling uneasy with this project yet?  I also grabbed my sewing scissors, not knowing what would work best on attempting to fillet the foam pad down to a desirable thickness.

I ended up using both the bread knife and the scissors.  It would have been much easier if I had just used a 1" thick foam pad, but beggars can't be choosy at 9:00 at night.  The clock was ticking.  

Wow.  Check out that yellowing action on the edges of that foam.  Classy.

Next, I measured the flat bottom of my purse, and made sure that my large piece of foam was cut to fit this size.  I then cut 4 additional pieces that were a few inches high to make the walls of my foam "box".  

The sides cut to fit the long lengths of the bottom pad.
It doesn't matter that they're not 100% smooth- they're going inside of a fabric sandwich soon.

Next, I cut six pieces of fabric.  I cut two pieces to make sleeves for the long sides, two pieces to make sleeves for the short sides, one piece to make a sleeve for the bottom piece of padding, and a white piece of fabric to hold it all together. 

Isn't that cute fabric??

 For each foam piece, I essentially cut enough fabric as if I was cutting wrapping paper to wrap a present.  I folded the fabric over, sewed two sides, and stuffed the foam in.  I wasn't going for super precision here...it's going to be shut up inside of a purse.  Also, the clock continued to tick, and I needed to finish packing and get to bed!!

Yep, the foam is in there.

After my 5 foam pieces were packed in nice and tight to their fabric homes, I needed to connect them together.  Here's where the white piece of fabric comes into play.  If you notice from the photo with the white fabric above, I cut off the corners to make a small flap on each side.  This flap would be sewn into the open end of each fabric pouch.  A picture's worth 1,000 words, right?  Here's what I ended up with:

All 4 foam side pieces sewn to a flat bottom.

The next picture shows the above picture with the large foam pad sitting on top of it.  This will all make sense in a moment.

Ahh, get it now??

Once inside the purse, the four pieces attached to the white fabric fold upwards to conform to the sides of the purse to make a nice cushioned box for my camera.  

Pretty nifty, no?

Perfect fit.

I bought this purse last year at DSW for $5, no joke.  It's actually a really nice leather purse in a pewterish color, with several inside pockets and a removable cross body strap.  It's too big to carry on a daily basis, but it's great for traveling.  I was able to stuff two passports, lipstick, cell phone, credit cards, a city map, Flat Margot, and some change into the side pockets.  Perfect.

My regulars know who Flat Margot is, but in case you haven't been introduced...

Flat Margot rides a bike along the canals in Amsterdam.

And the camera bag/purse?  Worked perfectly!!  The camera came back in one piece, and it captured some great memories, too.  Like this one.

Always ask someone holding a better camera than yours to take your picture.
They won't mess it up, and they won't try to steal it.
They also won't be able to make your husband smile for a picture.
Like, ever.

Ready for a teaser for the next post?  It includes paint, cigar boxes, and water.  Take your best bet.  I guarantee you're wrong.  Unless you follow me on Pinterest, in which case, you'll probably figure it out.  Happy crafting, kids!!