Wallpaper Sample Wall Art~

It's Thanksgiving week...so I'm giving you, my readers, a couple of  fun reasons to be thankful: Two giveaways in Two days.  Today's giveaway (offered by Elmer's)  is at the end of this post...and tomorrow I have a sponsor giveaway to share. Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm constantly on the look out for ways to beautify the home without breaking the bank.  And that is definitely true when it comes to wall art.  The key is, however, to make it look like you spent some money.  Caviar decorating on a tuna fish budget, I like to call it.

So when it comes to wall art, creativity is key.  And that's where wallpaper comes in...wallpaper samples to be precise.  Here's what I did with some free Anthropologie wallpaper samples, a frame that I already had, and some crafting products provided to me by Elmer's Glue.

First I found a combination of papers that was pleasing to my eye.  (I was going for a simple, uncluttered look, so I chose to use just four samples, but you could get creative and use many more- in all different sizes.)

Then I used my X-ACTO knife to cut the backing paper to size. After finding an arrangement that I liked, I used the Elmer's Tacky Glue to adhere them to a foam board backing, and popped it into the frame.  Seriously easy.

The thing I like about this project (besides its simplicity) is that the end result doesn't look like it was crafted.  It looks like it was purchased. It is interesting to look at, and it's one of a kind - so I won't see the same art in my neighbor's house.

Elmer's has created a fun 101 Uses for Inspired Users Guide that has tons of great - and very creative- ideas for things you can create with their products.  There's even a great advent calendar idea that I think I'm going to try for the holidays.  And today, Elmer's is giving away a craft pack to each of two lucky readers of The Shabby Nest.  These would be a great jumping off point to create some amazing holiday gifts or decor.

The packs include:

·         Foam Board

·         Foam Tri-Fold Display Board

·         Mini Bi-Fold Foam Board

·         CraftBond Extra Strength Glue Stick

·         X-ACTO Gripster Knife

·         CraftBond Tacky Glue

If you'd like a chance to win one of these craft packs, just leave a comment on this post. Easy-Peasy.  Happy Thanksgiving!!

For more crafting fun, you can learn more about what Elmer's has to offer at Elmers.com, and you can also find Elmer's on Twitter and Facebook. 

Disclosure: Elmer's provided me with the supplies I used to create this art.  The  opinions expressed were entirely my own. 

Equine Art Print~

Maybe you've noticed the trend toward equine art in decor lately.  If not, allow me to show you some of the pretties I've been seeing....

Source: veranda-interiors.com via Wendy on Pinterest



Elle Decor



Ballard  Designs



Tonic Home

I love horses.  They are such beautiful animals.  So I've been enamoured with all of these pretty horse prints for a while now.  And I've been wanting to add a print to our dining room.  Luckily after showing them to the Hubby, he starting liking them just as much.  However, because he is a photographer, he didn't want to purchase a print, he wanted to take one himself.

I was all for that!!

Luckily, we live next to a pasture just filled with lovely horses.  And one day I found the Hubby out there with his camera, just talking to the horses and taking their pictures.  Those horses, turns out, really love the camera.  In fact, they couldn't get enough of posing for pictures.  It was really quite funny!

But then the photos sat for a while.  Every few days the Hubby would ask when we were going to print one up, but I would always brush it off with some complaint about the cost of framing a large print.  Little did he know I had something up my sleeve.

You see, the Hubby's birthday was last week.  So I chose one of our favorite prints from that series, and edited it to  make it a  monochromatic black on white print.  Then I had it printed, and framed it in a large 30"x40" frame from IKEA (only $29.99 - can we hear a Woot Woot!)

While he was gone one evening, I put it up on the wall...and this is what he came home to...



He loved it...and was actually very surprised (and yes, happy) to have it as his gift this year!

We just love us a little equine art! 

Absolutely FREE (and beautiful!) art

Well my goodness you lovelies – thank you so much for the sweet comments on our family room redo!! You all made my day. :) I SO appreciate each and every one!

I’m sitting here this evening with one of my very favorite people – my dear friend Traci from Beneath My Heart:

(Traci at our recent IKEA trip.)

Yep, she’s here. In my house. Staying the night.

I’m in heaven. LOVE her!

So does the Bub, by the way. And the dog. I think there will be a very sad little boy and dog when she leaves. :(

We’ve been working on a fun little project in the office and I’m loving it! I can’t wait to show you, but we’ve talked a little too much and didn’t get enough done today. Hopefully we can talk and work at the same time and get it finished up before she leaves. ;)

For now, I’m really excited to tell you more about the art in the family room! I needed to fill some of the walls in the space, but I got to that part of the redo after I decided to not spend a dime in July.

Well. Drats.

I was determined, and was forced to get a little creative – and I love how it turned out! The best part -- this art is 100 percent, absolutely free for everyone. WHOO!

I found the NYC Digital Gallery years ago, and just haven’t made the time to go through their prints till now. (The thrill of not spending any money made up for the time it took to find what I wanted!) The Gallery is such a great resource -- it provides free access to over 700,000 images digitized from the The New York Public Library's collections.

And it is AWESOME.

If you are using the art on their site for personal, educational, or research purposes, they are absolutely free. (They can be used for commercial purposes for a reproduction fee.) Basically, they are free “printables” you can use for art in your home.

Told you – awesomesauce!

I found a few I wanted to share and then I’ll show you what I ended up with!

There are seven categories of prints, like arts, buildings and geography. But I especially loved the Nature and Science artwork, and thought this horse print was especially striking:

Wouldn’t that be fabulous in a library or office?

This one was a cover of a NYC theater program in 1930:

Isn’t that gorgeous?

I think a series of these shoe prints would be adorable in a closet or bedroom:

Or even a little girl’s room – how fun!

And yes, you can make your closet a fun space – especially when it’s FREE to do so. ;)

I especially loved the maps – this one of Italy because someday I will go there:

And I loved the aged look and beautiful colors of this one:

Wouldn’t that be amazing blown up into a huge print?

Originally I had planned on using botanical prints in the family room, and there is an insane amount to pick from on this site!

So many beautiful options!:

You may notice I added some pops of blue throughout the family room space, and I wanted to pull some blue to the wall by the TV to balance it out.

When I found the Ocean Flowers collection, I was hooked:

They were set on the most beautiful blue background and I was completely smitten. I thought they were perfect – they were a little bit more laid back than the botanical prints, but also a bit sophisticated. And they were so interesting!

All I did was take the image, copy and paste it into a Word document and make it as large as possible. (I made the margins super small.)

I had large frames from our powder room art that I took down weeks ago:

That room is in limbo, waiting patiently for it’s new paint. Wait line bathroom…wait in line.

Years ago I had painted the poster board behind those old prints chocolate brown, so I just painted them again. Then I just printed out the art from the Word document, cut it out and taped it to the middle of the poster board:

I doubt I’ll ever pay for mats to be cut again – this looks great every time! I wanted the poster board “mat” to be a flat, white paint, but all I have is glossy white – so I used a very light blue paint I used on the farmhouse desk in the office.

It looks really cool – turns out it’s the exact same tone of blue as the images:

I absolutely LOVE how they turned out!! And the best part – I didn’t spend a dime! I printed them on leftover cardstock, but you could just use regular paper (it looked just a good). And if you don’t have frames already, check out Goodwill and spray paint them the color you want. SO easy, so cheap!!

You just need a color printer, and if you don’t have one, ask around. :)

I love the “gallery” look of the prints:

It filled in that little spot perfectly! And it gave me that pop of blue I wanted on that side of the room:

The fact that these are free is fantastic – but I also love the variety. It’s all so original and different – no one else will have the exact same art. (Well, I guess some of you will, but you probably won’t know each other. So you’re good.)

Check out the collections at the Digital Gallery here. Give yourself some time to browse – you’ll be there awhile. ;)

Have you gotten creative and come up with free art? I’d love to hear what you did!

DIY memo board, take two

Hey all! This week is going by SO FAST! Can you believe the weekend is almost here?

If you’ve read this here blog for a while, you know I share the fails along with the good stuff. And sometimes there’s a project that’s not necessarily a fail --  it just doesn’t work the way I had hoped.

Case in point – the DIY memo board in my office:

I showed you how I made it back in January. After I finished, I hung it up, admired it, and then stuck my first pin in to hold up a reminder…and the hives started.

The pin put a huge hole in the beautiful fabric – the fabric that pretty much inspired the whole room. The fabric I LOVE that I do NOT want to have meeeellions of holes in.

Breathe Sarah.

:)

I tried different pins, and again with the hyperventilating.

The fabric I used on my old board worked fine:

I know that one looks a hot mess – it was on it’s last leg. :)

Anyway, that fabric was thinner, so it did fine with the push pins. The new fabric, notsomuch.

Because I really wanted to have a memo board I could actually use…I had to figure out a new way to go about this project.

It finally came to me, in the form of magnets.

And it only took three months (who’s counting?) but I finally got it done. Again.

I picked up a sheet of metal at Lowes that was the perfect size for what I needed. YES! No cutting necessary. Until I got it home and realized they put the wrong tag on it – and it was six inches too long.

I don’t have metal snippers of any kind, but I was determined to not go back to the hardware store again – so I tried our do-it-all scissors…and they worked!:

We LOVE these things – they cut through just about anything. Including metal. ;) Who would have thunk? (You can find them at Bed Bath and Beyond.)

I used plenty ‘o Liquid Nails on one side of the metal sheet:

And centered on my piece of foam:

I wrapped it with the fabric – again. And secured the fabric to the back of the board with hot glue. Again. :)

Then I used my nail gun to nail it onto the back of the frame:

If you attempt this, you could use either the foam board (for push pins) or the metal (for magnets) – you really don’t need both. I just used the foam because I had it, and it made it easy to attach it to the back of the frame.

When I was done, I realized the frame needed just a little somethin’:

And decided it was time to stress a little and do a little distressing:

I always sweat when I do that, even though it’s no big deal – if you sand off too much, you can just touch it up with paint.

But I do always stress. :)

I finished it up (again) by adding a coat of poly to protect it:

And now, it’s finally ready to do it’s job:

For reals this time!

I made some DIY magnets by taking some cute scrapbooking brads and little magnets:

I just took off the “brad” part (they twisted right off) and glued a magnet on the back:

So I finally have a spot to put all of my memos…you know, cause it’s a MEMO board.

Not a sit empty for three months cause you’re going to ruin it if you use it. :)

I still don’t know if it will stay in that spot – it’s convenient, but it depends on how much I put up there. (These were just random things I had nearby.) If it gets too cluttered I may move it across the room.

I’ll live with it for a while where it is and see how I use it. But now, at least I can USE it:

And not just admire. It’s function over form around these parts. :)

You may have noticed…no, I still haven’t painted the board and batten. Soon. I swear. I’m mentally preparing myself.

Let’s just focus on how far it’s come, umkay?:

Now…onto filling holes, caulking, priming, painting, filling holes, caulking…whimper.

Hold me.

:)

Subway Art: My Version and a Mini Buffet Makeover~

Okay, so I have to preface this post by reminding you that I have an obsessive need to constantly tweak and redecorate. So I had barely finished redoing my small buffet (as seen in this post) when I already had the desire to tweak it. Don't get me wrong. It was pretty. Just not quite "me". Know what I mean?

BEFORE (pretty, but not quite right):

The more I looked at it, the more I knew that I wanted to bring back a bit of the black. I like the sophistication that a bit of black brings.

I also have been crushing on all the subway art signs that I have seen floating around blogland. So I decided that it was high time I made some for myself.

Here is my version...filled with cities that are meaningful for our family. For example, Kennebunkport, Maine - at the very top of the sign - is where the hubby and I spent our honeymoon. Newport, RI is where we spent my 24th birthday. Just last year. (ha, just kidding!) You get the idea.




When I put it up on the wall, I knew other things were going to have to change as well. The pretty pink faux cherry blossoms looked much too sweet against the sign. So I replaced them with white blossoms in a rustic vessel. Then I brought back my pretty terrarium that had previously been on the buffet. But the two things looked a little bit lonely, so I added a stack of old books tied with twine.

Finally, I decided that the lamp needed a little bit of zing, so I added some grosgrain ribbon around the top and bottom. A little dab of hot glue holds the ribbon in place so that I can easily remove it when I'd like another change.

So here she is...the little buffet all done over (again.) I'm lovin' this version. And that cute subway art? I'll have a tutorial for you soon.

Have a great day~

Photographs: My favorite art

Well hello all! Can you believe it’s almost the weekend already? I swear this week has absolutely flown by.

I got one project completed this week that I’m really, really happy with. (GLEE!!) And I did most of it with what I had, which is always a bonus in my book. :)

When it comes to filling wall space, we don’t have much real art in our home. OK, let me rephrase…we have ZERO real art. :)

An outlet Ballard Designs piece is the closest we get to actual art. Instead I’ve fill our walls with a bunch of molding and lots and LOTS of pictures. Bunches. Gaggles. :)

Photographs are my very favorite art. They’re cheap (most of the time I print them out at home and almost all frames are from Goodwill), they’re easy, and they add a personal touch to our home that no art could.

I’ve grouped framed pictures in almost every room in our house. The playroom:

See that squishy face? That’s my baby:

The cowboy is my Dad as a boy. I could die. :)

That wall of photos is getting a redo soon. I may move the shelves around and am definitely adding new photos throughout.

I filled an empty wall on our stairwell with photos as well:

Don’t worry…the mice are gone. As much as I HEART them. :)

And I used photos in a wall in our bedroom as well:

You can see they’re usually hung willy nilly. I like the scattered look when it comes to framed photos, which is REALLY weird for me, since I’m the symmetrical queen.

When I started the impromptu redo of the living room, I knew exactly how I wanted to fill the space between the windows. I took at look at the colorway on the fabric I picked for the drapes for some color inspiration:

I big fat LOVE when they do that! It makes it so easy to work with. You’ll notice there’s 16 different colors in this beautiful fabric, which gave me plenty of options to choose from.

And it turns out, I already had exactly what I needed. :) About eight months ago, I started collecting frames at Goodwill for an idea I had for the living room. I even spray painted them months ago – I bet it’s been about six months.

But when I tried my idea in the room, I didn’t care for it (more about that later!) and left it sitting for months. And wouldn’t you know it – the colors I had already painted the frames worked perfectly for my new idea:

I love using what I have. And I love it even more when the spray painting is already done. ;)

I started finishing off this spot with a Goodwill lamp – it was blinding me with it’s brassiness at the store, but I knew it could be a beauty:

Doesn’t it have the loveliest curves? Oh, she’s so darn pretty. :) I sprayed it with a primer and then a couple coats of Rustoleum’s Heirloom White. I had the shade, and added a ribbon from my stash around the bottom. I love how the color in the ribbon is an exact match to the light brown in the drapes.

That is what I’m talkin’ about! Totally by accident and it worked great. Whooeee!!

I kept the accessories in the HomeGoods tray simple. I didn’t want them to compete with the art:

The rattan ball was a couple bucks on clearance at Pottery Barn years ago. The books are those faux books, and I covered them with a linen fabric last year.

The art is my very favorite part! They’re all shots I took (with my point and shoot camera by the way) last year:

I used a few of the wildflower shots (from our neighborhood) and a leaf from a hike last fall. I was going for bright colors that worked with the drapes. LOVE.

I don’t even use mats most of the time – I just cut out white paper and use spray adhesive or double-sided tape to mount the photos right on top. You can’t even tell they’re not the real thing!

Like I mentioned, I usually print my photos out at home (and usually just on basic printer paper), but this time I splurged a little bit. I uploaded them to Walgreens.com and picked them up an hour later.

Uhh, hello?? How have I missed this fabulousness all these years? I knew about it, just never did it. And I’m now hooked. I think the five pictures were about $12.

The new art is the perfect finishing touch for that part of the room:

I’m so in love with it. I smile every time I walk in this space.

There’s still much I want to do – not sure that mirror is staying on the right (it’s a little small). You’ll see a peek of a Goodwill coffee table that’s waiting for a redo. And there’s pillows to make as well. (I am going to attempt to make a pillow with a zipper people.)  ;)

And if you look close enough, you’ll notice the drapes are different lengths, still aren’t hemmed (will they ever be? I don’t know, I don’t know!), and there’s a few holes in the wall I need to paint over.

I was able cover most of those with the frames though. YESSSS.

Because you know I’m a lovah of before and after pics, let’s check out the difference so far, shall we? The dark before:

And with new drapes and a little reworking, the now:

BOO.yah. LOVE it.

I know many of you are loving the fabric as much as I am – I got it from Calico Corners and it’s P. Kaufman fabric:

I’m trying to find it online and haven’t come up with anything yet. I’ll let you know if I find a link!

So, do you use photos as art in your home? I know one thing – if we ever sell our house, the realtor is going to have a heyday with us. Aren’t you supposed to depersonalize? We’ll have LOTS of empty walls! Or they’ll just have to deal.  :)

P.S. The lamp shade on the side table was a vintage find years ago. Isn’t is perfect?

P.P.S. The spray paints/colors I used on the frames were Rustoleum’s Heirloom White and Espresso and Valspar’s Everglade.

**Adding this to my friend Melissa’s party: