DIY wall decor idea/tutorial

Ben has been out of town this weekend, so I've been crafting! It must be my form of nesting, because there are dishes all over the counter and a few loads of laundry that need to be put away. At this point, sewing and gluing are great though, because I can do them from a chair. Whew. Nobody remind me that babies are easier on the inside than the out, because I don't want to hear it at this point. I feel like a marshmallow in the microwave that is just seconds away from it's threshold. Sorry. Marshmallows (along with a thousand other artificial food groups) have been on the brain lately. Blasted Prednisone.

Anyway, the home stretch is bringing me to want to craft both out of the awareness that I won't be able to for probably a long time, and that I need to personalize some things for Clara. Yep, Number 2 is officially Clara, and true to second-birth-order form, she has very few new or personalized things. Up until just day before yesterday, expectant pictures of Ben & I pre-Adelaide hung over the crib. I knew I needed something different, but couldn't break the bank and didn't have a lot of time. And this is too easy a project to keep it to myself. For famous DIYers, it's probably nothing new, but you know how sometimes you think you've made up an invention and in the very least, it makes you feel good to have a good idea, even if it was around before the cavemen? Like my friend Kate. She was the real inventor of the term "spork." I believe her and think she should be entitled to prize for being so smart.

I think I'm going to change the name of this blog to "you are once AGAIN dumber for reading me." I'm sorry this is a recurring theme around here.

I'll proceed:

Supplies:

• image (free or not at the expense of someone else's intellectual property). Deirdre, you'll let me know if I'm going to get sued for doing something illegal here, right?
• glue stick and scissors
• Cardstock or scrapbook paper for image. Anything you want, really
• Cardstock, scrapbook paper, or any other background you want for your frame
• Old (or new) picture frames
• Optional: sewing machine (or I guess you could do this part by hand), complimentary thread

First, find an image you like - I googled clip art or coloring pages. Make sure this size you choose will fit into your frame, or be smarter than me and know how to reduce the size.

Print your picture on your regular ole' printer. The next part is backwards, because I didn't think it would be share-worthy until I had almost finished it. Once you get your image printed, cut a general shape around it's border and glue (I used a school glue stick) to the back side of some pretty paper. I used scrapbook paper from Hobby Lobby. You'll want to see the image of your design so that you can cut closely along the lines.

This is what NOT to do. If you wanted this bird on this pink swirly paper, you would really glue it (bird up) to the white side of the colored paper. Cut (this time carefully along the outside border), and you're basically all done.

But it wasn't enough for me, because of the paper choices I had, and because I have been been on a mission for the past 3+ years to integrate pink and red into most of A's baby life. So I decided to use red thread and sew around the borders of the birds. This was easy-peasy. Just choose your thread color (bobbin thread doesn't matter) and run along the edges. They were so much easier to sew than fabric because paper is smooth like butta, but holds it's shape. Be careful for beaks and claws. Or just ignore them. Sewing would also be a great way to accent non-border lines like feathers or tails. If you did it this way, I'd recommend using a faint pencil mark along your intended structures and stitching from the top, or using the right bobbin thread and stitching your original image after it had been glued on to your fancy paper, so that the bobbin side would show on the top side of the scrapbook paper. Heck, I'm feeling dumber writing this blog now!

I can't for the life of me find the cheap collection of white frames from Ikea that I bought, inspiration: salon style art, so the birds are on hold, as well as a few other ways we want to personalize Clara's room for her, along with a dedication verse. But I did finish this little butterfly. Quick, cheap, easy, recyclable (a great way to re-use all of the frames you have no interest in - just spray paint 'em and use pretty paper as a backing or the actual image of a clip art or coloring page image). And for me, a way to independently desegregate red and pink tensions in a way that I hope will be pretty.

Finisimo!