Completed Picture Wall! (For now at least)

Well I finally finished my cheap version of the Pottery Barn picture wall! Go here to see theirs!! VERY pricey project if you buy their frames!!  My version looks pretty good for not spending any money!! The only thing I spent money on was printing the pictures and $8 for the mat board!  I designed mine so that I could add more pictures to it later on.  This is how I did it!

First you have to choose which pictures you will use and what sizes you want them to be.  This was the hardest part for me since I have about 9988492093809889 pictures of my kids.  Once they are printed, you need to mat them all.  I did NOT mat them the way pictures are supposed to be matted! LOL!  It's too expensive to buy actual mats and get them cut to fit each picture!  I bought 1 sheet of the bright white picture mat board from Hobby Lobby.  It was $7.99.  Then to save time and money, I just cut the mat to fit the frame and then taped the picture right on the mat.  It was pretty time consuming to do it my easy way.  I can't imagine how long it would take to actually cut the mat opening to lay on top of the picture like you're supposed to!  I should mention that before I even chose my pictures, I gathered all the frames I had in my house, so I knew how many pictures I should print.  I didn't want to have to buy any frames! When I work on a project like this, I have to have lots of space to lay everything out.

And of course having a cute little chubby boy to help is nice!

Here's another one of my secrets....

5 of the frames I had weren't black...until I hit them with some spray paint!  I already had a can of black, so it didn't cost anything!  And think of what I would have spent to buy 5 new frames!

After all your pictures are matted and framed, I would suggest laying them out on the floor or a large surface to see how you want them.  Then you can arrange and rearrange as much as you want until you like your design.  I wanted it to look somewhat random and not symmetrical.  Lay the biggest frames out first and then work your way down to the smallest.

Wanna know another secret?  5 of these pictures are matted on white computer paper!! Haha! I'll betcha $100 bucks you can't guess which 5!

Now it's time to transfer to the wall.  I MAY or MAY NOT have left the pictures sitting on the island in our kitchen for 3 hours days because I was dreading moving them to the wall.  When the time finally came that we needed our counter space back, I sloooooowly came up with my plan.  Here's a hint-once you get your arrangement the way you like it, take a picture.  I probably looked at my picture 30 times while hanging them on the wall.  I started with my biggest frame.  This picture is 10X13.

I found the center point of the wall and went from there.  While I didn't want my arrangement symmetrical, I still wanted it even on the wall!  One by one, I added the photos.  I am somewhat happy with the finished project, but now that it's on the wall, I see that I need 1 more picture on the top right and maybe a couple small ones in between.  I'll be working on that.  I also realized a few pictures are hanging crooked.  Those have already been fixed!  I HATE crooked pictures!!!

So what do you think??  Any suggestions?  Do you have a picture wall in your house?

Picture Wall

Hey! So apparently keeping up with a blog, 2 kids, 2 dogs, 2 cats, a husband, and a house is a little more difficult than I anticipated!! I'm working on it though!  I'm currently working on a fun project that I've wanted to do for a while!  We have a very large bare wall that runs down the hallway.  We have plans to hang some large canvas prints there in the future, but that will be pretty pricey.  For now, I am excited to turn the space into a picture wall!!  I have always drooled over the pictures in Pottery Barn of the big collections of black and white pictures in all different sizes.  I'm doing my best to create our own, without spending a ton of money.  The hardest part has been choosing which photos to use!  We all know about my obsession with pictures!!  It just so happens that a friend of mine is a great photographer!  We had planned for her to take newborn pictures of Walker when he was...well..a newborn.  Of course we didn't plan on spending 2 weeks in Charleston in a hospital.  As soon as we were home and settled in, we set a date!  She did an amazing job and is super affordable if you are in the Lexington area and need a friendly photographer!  You won't be disappointed!  Here are a few of my favorites from the shoot.  I will share pictures of the completed picture wall when it's done!  I'm still waiting on a few prints to be delivered.  Here is Kayla's site for those who are interested!  http://kaylawilkes.smugmug.com/

A favorite picture

I decided to try out this link up thing !! I am joining Kelli in her Oh Snappy Day post!  You all know how much I adore taking pictures and scrap booking them!! Each one takes you back and tells a story.  And let me just say-if you don't have kids, and you think you take a lot of pictures now, you just wait, my friend!  I have already started wondering how I will ever keep up with the picture taking and scrap booking of my 2 precious little ones!!  Since I have soooooo many pictures, it's hard to choose just 1 favorite to share.  But, this one stands out to me.



I actually did not take this picture, but it's still a favorite.  My friend, Megan took this at Audrey Grace's baptism.  I love so many things about it.  See the little dimple in my sweet girl's chubby little arm right at her elbow??  That's the first thing I love.  I also love that it looks like she has a rubberband around her wrist from all the fat rolls!!  I also love the blurred background, which is always one of my favorite things about a good picture.  I love how she is just passed out on me, in such a sweet sleep, with no cares in the world.  I also love that this picture takes me right back to that spot.  I feel myself sitting there, in our church, holding my first born chid, about to give her to God through baptism.  I remember choosing her gown, dressing her that morning, and every word that was said that day.  And I'm wearing the pearl necklace and earrings from my love.  Such a special day.