Distressed Photograph Canvases

It's been a really long time since I posted any projects.  Not that I haven't been working on things, and not that I haven't been taking photos of them.  Mostly, I've been trying to finalize a bunch of patterns to post online for free and haven't gotten around to getting them completely to my liking and scanned in for uploading.  Eventually some free PDFs will be coming your way.


For now, this is another project I've had on my to do list for a long while and finally had the time to do: distressed photograph canvases.  

I originally got the idea from Delia over at delia creates.  If you want to find out how to make your own, here is the tutorial over on her site.

The pictures are from the photo shoot with did for their one-year birthday with Aubrey and Emma's godmother Skyler.  She's such a gifted hobby photographer, and we all love her and are thankful that she's such a special part of our lives.

There are two things I really love most about this project.  It's really inexpensive, especially if you can get the canvases and gel medium on sale with 40-50% off coupons for Michael's or Joann Fabrics (I think I calculated it to about $7 a canvas after my savings).  Also, it's a project that's easy to work on for five minutes and come back to later without having to really start over or try to figure out exactly where you were at.  With these two, I need projects like that!

A couple tips I'd give out would be to be patient and not work on a canvas too long in one spot.  I'd advise letting it dry and coming back to it later or moving on to a new spot on the canvas so that you're not rubbing on the same wet spot too long (or you might rub some off).  Also, make sure you're liberal with the gel medium, and don't rub too hard to make sure the picture is pressed down on it.  I know you want to press hard enough that it sticks well and you've gotten rid of all the air bubbles, but if you press too hard, your picture might end up looking a little like this:

I already apologized to Ryan for taking off a chunk of his forehead, and I'm sure someday I'll hear about it from the girls how my face magically has the least damage.  It wasn't on purpose, I promise!  You can tell where I spread out the gel medium too thin with an old credit card because there are lines where the corners pressed in.  Luckily I left enough of the gel medium to stick to most of the picture, and it's not too bad.  I would have liked to leave our faces completely on the picture, though, without chunks and lines missing.  Oh well.  I guess I learned for the future.

Overall, I love them and am so glad I found a way to have canvases hanging in our house that I can afford!  Imagine our dining area walls without them:

Doesn't it look so much better?

Book Page Wreath

I've wanted to decorate for Christmas for a while now, but it's hard to find baby-safe things to decorate with that don't involve my having to watch Aubrey and Emma like a paranoid person.  Decorations that hang on the wall and Christmas trees in non-baby rooms will just have to do this year I fear.  Hence this project.

A few days ago, I created this book page wreath using an old book, a basic wreath I already had in the house, and a lot of hot glue.  I got the idea from Delia over at delia creates.

For those of you who know me well, you might be shocked that I would actually tear up a book, even for the sake of a good home decor project.  My husband couldn't believe it, either.  However, I assure you that book was tear-worthy.  It was entitled Nineteen from Seventeen: Stories from Seventeen Magazine selected by Bryna Ivens, Fiction Editor of Seventeen.  I'll let your imagination run wild with the cheesiness of that one.  (I apologize, Bryna, if you felt that this was the culmination of your most important life work.  Honestly, I doubt that, though.)

In fact, I'm not the only one who wasn't a fan of this book.  I got it free from a library cast-off pile, and on the back someone had scrawled in pencil, "I hate this book."  Harsh words, but  I guess I don't have a right to judge since I just ripped it apart.  It was for a good cause, though.

For those of you who have/had small children, do you have any tips and tricks for how to keep your Christmas decorations safe, or did you just resolve yourself to decorating in future years when it wasn't so hard to keep curious hands from committing ultimate destruction?  (I type this as Aubrey honestly just got ahold of a stray book page that didn't make it into the wreath and just took a bite out of the page.)