Instagram Pictures Displayed

You may remember when I blogged about my craft room gallery wall:

Gallery wall with winter/Christmas photos displayed.

Gallery wall with no photos displayed - looks so sad. :(

I love having a way to display my Instagram photos in my home.  And I love having current pictures that are evocative of the current season.  These pictures all feel  so summery.  I love it.

Shoutout to Walgreens and their Printicular app for making it so quick and easy!!

Office Gallery Wall

I've been gathering things for a gallery wall to put up in my office at work for...probably a year.  I've had this sketch sitting around for...quite awhile.

Then I got this amazing frame for Christmas (thank you Mom!!!).  It has 16 openings for 4x4 Instagram photos (I loooooooove to display Instagram pics) and that spurred me to action.

I laid everything out and edited and rearranged.  In fact, I wasn't happy with some of the pieces, so I found an 8x10 wooden frame I had bought at Goodwill and painted it with a mix of navy and black chalk paint and then pulled out a pack of stickers I had and a piece of cardstock and made the piece at the bottom left in an hour.

This is the "before" pic of the blank wall in my office.

Here is a GREAT tip for hanging things on your wall (and it's extra easy when that wall is in an office) - make a photocopy of the back of the frame.  Then tape that copy up on the wall and you can rearrange without putting a bunch of holes in the wall and see exactly where the nails need to go.

From the top down:

1. You can see all about how I made the Embroidery Hoop Bunting Wall Art in this link.

2. As mentioned above, I received this for Christmas, which can be found here and had some of my favorite Instagram pictures printed by Walgreens - who make it super easy.

3. In this blog link, you can see the creative process for the Whatever (Philippians 4:8) Print and in this link to my Etsy shop you can buy your own downloadable Whatever print.

4. I bought the adorable arrow from a local Old Town shop, Lucinda's, at a sidewalk sale.  

5. I elevated the clipboard by adding gold leaf to the clip, which you can read more about here.

6. And as mentioned before, I threw the final piece together at the last minute.

Craft Room Gallery Wall

I'm crazy excited about this gallery wall! I love it so much!

I wanted everything on the wall to be something I loved, something I made or something that inspires my creativity.

1.  You may or may not know, I was a winner of a Hallmark card contest (you can see my card here) and Hallmark sent me a pre-production flat signed by all the judges.  I found a frame to fit the flat and this was my first piece for the wall.

2.  I found this Tina Fey quote on Pinterest and loved it so much, I wanted it on my wall, so I ordered a 5x7 print of from Walmart.  Every time I read it, I think so true!

 3.  Also looking through Pinterest I saw a pin that said "All I want to do is create things and drink coffee and sleep" - which is totally me, except I drink diet coke, rather than coffee.  So I designed an 8x10 of this just using Microsoft Word and also sent to Walmart to be printed.  The frame came from Goodwill.

4.  Walking through Hobby Lobby one day I fell in love with a pack of stickers (I know, that makes me sound like I'm 5, but... #ItsTheSimpleThingsInLife and #YoungatHeart).  I bought them and a small black canvas to stick one on.  (Who knew they made black canvases!)  I made three pieces for my gallery wall with the sticker pack.  The Believe sticker on black canvas and the gratitude sticker on a frame.

  5.  In Target, walking past the home décor/college décor area and I saw this lighted arrow, that runs on batteries and turns off automatically after 3 hours - I loved it so much.  So much!!  It had to be part of my wall!  At $9.99, it was the most expensive item on the wall - I love the challenge of trying to "design on a dime"!

 6.  I stopped by Goodwill to look for frames for my prints, and walked out with two different sized frames than what I needed.  For this wall, I wanted a mix of colors and textures for the frames.  So far, all I had collected were black frames, but I wanted some wood to bring in a natural element and some gold to bring in a metallic, glitzy element. 

This one, I bought for the frame, intending to get rid of the picture in it, but as looked at it, I loved the little painting that came with the frame.  It inspired me!  And made me wonder who Ray is and what his story is. 

I loved this frame and even liked the metal sign in it (it was an orange, vintage kitchen tin sign), but it wasn't right for my wall.  I wasn't sure what I would actually do with it.  Then inspiration hit to just put in a graphic piece of paper on top of the metal sign.  I love it now.  Further inspiration made me realize I could stick magnets to it, since the metal sign was behind the paper. 

I loved this silver/antique looking frame and used it to frame a photo of my precious nephew Henry that I recently took!

 

 

 7.  I decided to add a magnetic dry erase board to use as a "real life Pinboard".  I wanted a plain black square.  I found this one at Target for under $3 - which I thought was an amazing deal!!  I happened to have 2.5 x 2.5 magnets of some of my Instagram photos that I bought from Sticky9 awhile back.  (These are cool, but probably something I could figure out how to make for a lot cheaper.)

  

8.  I made this colorful frame from upcycled magazines.  You can find the instructions HERE.

 9.  I've seen photos clipped on a cord all around the internet - so I knew it was a trend.  Then in Target, I saw this photo line kit - so that tells me it's a definite trend!  Of course, I wanted to make my own.  I bought cord and mini clothes pins and sent my Instagram pics to Walgreens to be printed. 

I painted my mini-clothespins black - this was a terrible idea.  I submerged them in paint, then dumped them out to dry on a piece of paper.  The paint dried in huge clumps and stuck to the paper and I had to use pliers to get them to open.  Note to self - next time buy little black clips.  (Although I do like how they turned out - they were just a pain!) 

10. Metal camera art - I found this at Michael's in the dollar bins, and since I love photography, it fit very well with my wall!

11. Chalkboard - I love this piece so much!! You can see how I made it HERE.

There may be more additions - but for now - my craft room is more inspiring, happier and more "me" than ever! 

Which piece is your favorite?

Gallery Wall How-To: Create a Focal Point with Framed Art

Create continuity by choosing one or more common element.

I chose black frames and square/rectangle shapes.  I also spaced all of my frames about 2 inches apart.

  

Create interest by adding variety.

My frames have different textures – some are ornate and some are simple and sleek.  Some have mats, some do not.  I used a variety of media to create visual interest.

 

Choose a theme for your grouping.

Because my grouping is in my bedroom, the first theme is “Lyndi” – things that represent me and a secondary theme is serenity, peace, comfort – because I want a relaxing and rejuvenating atmosphere.  I also chose subdued tones.  Your theme might be nature, Victorian era, abstract art, your children, the ocean, yellow – possibilities are endless.

 

Arrangement

Either keep things symmetrical, even and straight or go with an odd number placed  in a more free, organic shape.  I chose the organic approach for my wall.  If going symmetrical, the frames should be all the same.

Laying frames on the floor on top of craft or wrapping paper lets you choose the look you want without a bunch of nail holes in your wall.  When you are happy with the arrangement, tape the paper onto the wall and then put the nails through the craft paper.  Then tear the craft paper down and the nails are ready for all your frames.

 

If you love the photo, it's available for purchase in my Etsy shop, TheBurlapFlower!

 I started with a small grouping and have added frames, as I made or found new art pieces.  I have also made it kind of a game to find the least expensive frames I can – check out antique stores, thrift stores, garage sales, Buy, Sell, Trade groups, Craigslist, your basement and store sales.  The frame around my lilac photo was in a pile of trash, so that was my least expensive find – I painted it black and now I love it!