Make your own wall art, CHEAP

I have been in a very crafty mood lately and made lots of wall decor, so I wanted to share with you how to do it cheaply.  Almost all of my projects start from something I find at the thrift store and then I look for a thrift store frame it will fit in.  With the frame and what I will put in it in mind, I decide on colors and take a trip to the craft store for paint, fabric, or scrapbook paper.

Here are some pictures of finished projects all using the same technique.  Some I made to sell ( the girls room stuff) and some to hang on my own walls. I spent very little on them, tried to spend less than $1 for what goes in the frame and less than $2 for the frame.  I find GREAT deals thrift store shopping, but you have to look past the ugly and dirty to see potential.  I'll give you more details on how to make a project like this after the pics.

These whales came from an ugly broken figurine, I chiseled them off and popped them in a frame!

This is a wood trivet that I painted and mounted on fabric.

These bunnies just needed paint and the right background

The moon and the bulldozer below were meant to hang  by themselves in a kids room, but I think they look so much better and bigger in a frame.

This letter is mounted on light colored burlap.

This elephant was someone's unfinished craft project, but for  $.40 , it became mine!

First I paint my object if needed and my frame.

Then I cut a piece of foam core or cardboard to fit the inside of the frame.  Those thick but rigid compressed pieces of cardboard that come with some frames work well to mount everything on too.

I used fabric and scrapbook paper as backing for all the projects above and I used the same economical way to adhere them, good old Elmer's Glue.  Here is the very unofficial way I did it, but the results were great.  Squirt a generous amount of glue on your backing board.  Then dip a craft paintbrush in water and smooth out the glue. Keep dipping the brush in water and smoothing until every inch is covered with water down glue, especially the edges.  Carefully lay the already cut to size fabric or paper down, smooth quickly and let dry.  Its a good idea to lay something on it (a book) when drying so it lays flat and firmly adheres.

After it has dried, attach your object, I almost always use Gorilla Glue and I love the results.  One small bottle will last a very long time doing these kinds of projects. Be sure to follow the instructions on the glue. Be very careful to center and align your object, I have goofed this one a few times,its not fun to redo!

Now you should have a backing board that is very pretty on one side.  Frame it!  Chances are your thrift store frame has nothing to hold the backing board in place so you need to find and use glazier points.  Very easy to use and cheap too.  I push them in with a large flat head screwdriver and them hammer the end of the screwdriver if needed to get them all the way in.  You should have a finished project!

If you have any questions I will be glad to help you.  Check out a few before pictures from the above projects.

Cute Snowman for your Wall or Outdoors

He's a cutie, right?  Easy to make, cheap to make- do you notice a theme with my projects? lol!

I found all my grapevine wreaths at thrift stores and spent about $3 on them, but 2 of them were covered in ugly outdated fake flowers that I just ripped off.  One of them looks like it is made from briars (huh) but it works!  The hat is from the Dollar Tree and the scarf is a piece of felt.  I did not hook the wreaths together, but you could with wire, heavy gauge fishing line, etc.  As you can see, I hung mine outside but this snowman would be cute inside too.

Here is my inspiration, both are beautiful.  I just made mine easier for me to do.  Both are from pinterest.  Imagine that!

http://pinterest.com/pin/75505731222254506/

http://pinterest.com/pin/75505731222287105/

Hanging Lanterns Wall Art

The "make do with what you have" side of my brain met an idea that led to this, a big wall decoration and it costs me nothing!  Look for more wall art ideas in upcoming posts.

I had these lanterns and the curtain rod.  My last house had built ins and this house does not, so I am left with too many things that need surfaces to sit on, but I love my lanterns and this was the perfect solution.  I hung them with baling twine, the stuff used to hold hay bales together. The inspiration came from HGTV Design Star Season 6 highlights.

Last Minute Handmade Gifts

Here is a round up of easy, creative handmade gifts with links to instructions and fabulous photos.  There is still time for handmade, it might be easier than running around in search of the perfect gift!

A custom dry erase board using a store bought frame and scrap book paper found here.

Candy Cane Vodka, it looks very festive and very easy, but you need 2 days to let it soak.  Find it here.

Pretzel Turtles- 3 ingredients, 883 5 star reviews (that means its good) and they are unbelievably yummy and so easy. 

For kids personalized gripper socks, easy enough if you have a steady hand.  I did this with names, dots, squiggles.  She got more fancy here, but its an easy project.

Rice Sock (microwave heat pack)!  These are great for kids or anyone and there are all sorts of fun socks out there!  This video shows you how to make one in under 1 minute, so make several!!!

Instant Russian Tea is always a hit.  There are hundreds of recipes so to make it easy and trust this 5 star recipe at allrecipes.com

And here is my Gift category on this blog, some are very quick!

Cute snowman wrapper for an easy, cheap gift

 

I was once again inspired by something I saw on pinterest, imagine that!  I needed 10 gifts that were cheap and easy and this is what we did.  This is one pack of microwave popcorn wrapped in one sheet of copy paper with one pair of knit gloves as the hat.  The kids are giving these as gifts so I let them draw the snowmen and I think they turned out cute!  One sheet of felt was cut to make the ties for the hats.  I scored the gloves in a 2 pack at the Dollar Tree and had the kids put one glove inside the other and slipped it over the top.  I don't know exactly how much I spent but I am thinking it was less than $1 per gift.  

The possibilities are endless here.  You can wrap up hot cocoa,  chocolate bars and so much more.  The idea came from here and she has a printable for the snowman that looks nice.  But I am never one to have ink in my printer and I wanted to kids to have fun with it too.  We made 10 gifts in less than 30 minutes.  You should try it!  Let me know if you do!