custom wall art that would even make your mother proud

This week, while the Marshmallow was doing this....


I was doing this....


The above photo is a sneak peak at a little tutorial I have planned for today! First, let's take a look at the current scenario:


We have a small hallway in our home that leads straight to the master bedroom. So, the only people that really walk through this hallway are the hubs and I. It's not a place that guests typically see unless they hang a short right out of the bathroom. It's a place that the hubby and I walk by every day, and for years the wall art has simply been these photo collage frames from Michael's.

Not to mention, the photos were from several years ago. I put these together shortly after graduating from college, so they are mostly college photos (which i love), but they were definitely out of date. My choices came down to a) updating the photos to more current ones, or b) creating new artwork.

Choice B was the obvious answer for me! There was just too much to look at in the old frames for such a small hallway that one is quickly walking by. I wanted to walk by something daily that would catch my eye better and make me smile.

So, without further ado, here is the after....
Much less busy, eh!! Three photos that make me smile every time I walk by and that can easily catch my eye. The photo in the long frame is actually a card we received at our wedding. It's an old school photograph of the church we were married in. The top photo in the large frame is a photo of our rings with our unity candle at our wedding, and the bottom photo in that frame is my sister checking out my rings after the wedding.

So...how'd I do it? I know you're on the edge of your seats out there :)

Here are the materials you'll need;
1) An old frame
2) A brown bag - grocery/shopping/etc
3) leftover fabric (either from your stash, or craft stores usually have scrap pieces for cheap, mine was left over from my dining room chair recover)
4) Glue
5) Scissors
6) Pencil
7) New photos or pictures or "lost things" to frame

Step 1: Take your brown bag and crumple it up into as little of a ball as you can. This is the fun part! Smash it down! Then neatly undo it from the smashed up ball and lay it out flat. You want to have the wrinkled look to your bag.

Step 2: Trace your frame around the bag and cut it to fit the size of your frame


Step 3: Cut your fabric out to the size and shape you prefer. Then glue your fabric to your brown bag, and your photo to your fabric.

Step 4: Frame it!


Step 5: Hang it and say hello to your gorgeous-new-custom-diy-free-wall-art!

On one of the frames I even doubled up the fabric for a little more pizazz:

(aaaand now Mar has a picture of her hand on the blog, hehehe)

As always, happy crafting free spirits!