Clothesline Photo Display

This is one of those projects that I almost feel a little sheepish writing a tutorial for, because it is so very basic, and you can probably guess how I did it by looking at the final picture. But while some projects sit in my mind for a few months of pondering, gathering materials, and working at them a little at a time, other projects come together out of necessity, in a single nap time, with materials scrounged up from around the house and $3.00 at Jo Ann Fabrics. Like this one.

As I stated last week, I have recently moved my craft room into our old office and moved "the office/my husband's stuff" out. However, he kept the bulletin board and pictures that I had in there, so I set out to get myself something similar. So I repossessed a frame from my son's room and got to work.

I'm still trying to make the room a bit more feminine and inspiring, so I got some pretty blue damasque fabric from JoAnn's and go to work. I didn't have any foam board, so I just covered the original art piece that had been in the frame with fabric batting. It was too thin (and sturdy) for staples, so I just hot glued the batting down about every 3 inches, which did the trick.

I cut my fabric about 1 1/2 inches larger than the batting, because I know that I will eventually re-do this board, and wanted to be able to remove the fabric easily while leaving the batting in tact. So I glued down the fabric in a similar fashion, pulling it snugly as I went.

I wanted to be able to change out my photos easily, but I was looking for something slightly different than the typical memo board, so I thought I'd make a little clothesline. I got some cotton twine and hot glued it to the top corners of my frame pulling it pretty tautly. (You may want to try hanging a few pictures from your line and see how low it dips before you glue on the second side. Photos and clips are surprisingly heavy on a little line like this.)

I then popped the fabric-covered board into the frame and tested out a few photos.

I used these tiny little clothespins on my line, which are a little smaller than the pad of your thumb. They are ADORABLE! When I got them I had originally planned on gluing little rosettes or something fun to the top of them for an extra embellishment, but I ended up loving them as is.

Once my photos were up I realized that the pictures that had been printed in "landscape" left enough room on the board for a second row. So I added a second string about halfway down the frame for another row of photos.

I was so happy with how the fabric backing provided a fun "mat" for the photos. It was a great alternative to matting a bunch of the pictures in little frames and grouping them together.

I love it! It was one of those happy projects that is easy, cute, cheap and functional.

I'm linking to these incredible parties here.

Also, I'm sharing my tutorial on Freezer Paper Tote Bags over on Just Another Day in Paradise's Christmas in July party! If you missed it the first time around, click here to see it. Actually, there are tons of great ideas over there, so you should probably visit no matter what, and start thinking about and creating your Christmas gifts now!

See you Wednesday to share my favorite read this summer by far!!

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Photo Placemats

Muslin fabric comes cheap at Wal-Mart and it is versatile so it often becomes my fabric of choice for pillows and other home decor. In this case, I chose muslin for some new dining table place mats.

I have a place mat pattern that measures 18 x 13 1/2. I cut out 8 pieces in this size to make four place mats.

The next thing I did was get out my stash of photo album inserts. I have several packs that were free when I was teaching. I have so many just stacked in the basement. My brain has been working to figure out a way to put these photo pages to good use, other than what they were intended for.

I cut out 4 rectangles that fit a 4 x 6 photo. I sewed one of these onto 4 different pieces of muslin in the bottom left hand corner. I sewed 3 sides and left one open in order to insert a photo.

Next, I got out this ribbon that comes already ruffled at Hobby Lobby. I rolled it around and flattened it creating a flower that I was happy with and pinned it together. I then hand stitched the flower to the top left corner of the photo insert.

My next step was to cut out 4 pieces of batting for each place mat. I then put the 2 pieces of muslin right sides together. I added the piece of batting to the back and pinned them all together.

I took the layered pieces to the sewing machine and stitched on all sides leaving an opening in the bottom middle for flipping. I snipped off each corner and flipped them right side out.

I folded in the opening and ironed it down so it would be ready to sew. I changed the thread to black, which if I had it to do over again, I would have also used black thread to sew on the photo insert. Oh, well.

I sewed all 4 sides completely on the outside to close up the opening at the bottom and finish it all up.

My final step was to insert a current favorite photo into each place mat. I now had myself 4 photo place mats for our dining table...

They are simple and personal, just the way I like things in my home...

I'm sure the photos will be changed often. It would be fun to make the photos related to different holidays too as they come around. I also had the idea of making a photo table runner out of muslin with a bunch of photo inserts placed down the middle to hold family photos. But that is for another day...

Thanks for visiting! Make sure you come back tomorrow because Lemon Tree Creations is hosting our first ever GIVEAWAY! How fun is that? I am so excited.

Also, go visit these parties and check out some amazing creations by bloggers everywhere!

Happy Tuesday!

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Eyeglass Family Tree

So, Saturday I was beginning my normal morning routine of dragging myself out of bed to catch a yard sale and then hit all the Goodwill's. Today I was on a mission: cheap pairs of eyeglasses for today's project; well my version of the family tree which was inspired by a book I have called Photojojo.



A simple way to create picture frames from old eyeglass frames. The first thing you would want to do is collect old glasses that you don't use anymore or that are scratched (sunglasses would work too). I found mine at my one stop thrift store for $.99 a pair. (no luck at the yard sales)



I simply picked some photos that I wanted to use for my family tree and placed them behind the frames (just make sure the images you want to use fit accordingly, I developed wallet size photos). I wanted to replace the lenses, but it appeared that I was going to ruin the frames, this was the best solution for me.




Using a sharpie (high tech, I know) I traced the around the frame and then cut out my picture.



Here I am checking to make sure it fits...and it looks fine to me ;)



On the back I cut out decorative scrapbook paper to cover the back of the photos and to add a nice touch to the glasses.



With a dab of hot glue, the pictures were in place.









For the finishing touches I painted the pot white using acrylic paint ($.33 ). I cut out the number 3 from scrapbook paper, mod podged it on, hot glued the yellow ribbon around the top of the pot, poured rice in the pot to secure the tree branches I purchased from the craft store to represent my family tree. Last and certainly not least, I added my new frames to the branches.

I was thinking as the season's changed I could add more pizazz to the tree. Some lights, paper flowers possibly? Thoughts?

Until next time, have a great weekend. I am excited to link up to these awesome parties this week. Won't you stop by and check them out?!

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