Music Sheet Photo Backdrops

I think I have a serious obsession with frames. When I see any crafts or decorations on the internet that involve frames, I seriously want to drop everything I’m doing and get out my craft totes!

Last week, I stumbled upon a pretty neat idea involving frames and old book pages. I also love books and any sort of book-ish crafts, so it definitely caught my eye on multiple levels. Here’s what it looks like:

A few days later, on my weekly stop in the local Goodwill, I found a few frames and made my way to the book section. I wanted to go for the older, worn out pages look rather than the bright white pages of more current publications, but for some reason I had no luck. Usually Goodwill is filled with junky old books, but luckily something else caught my eye:

My apologies for the terrible picture, but you get the point. Instead of book pages, I decided to get this sheet music and tweak my original plan. On the way home, I stopped to grab a can of black spray paint so I could get started.

Here’s a few of the frames I purchased. My first step in the process was removing the back and glass. I would recommend labeling or ordering them in some form or fashion because when it came time to put them back together, it took me awhile to figure out which back went with which frame. Oops!

Here is my favorite of the frames I purchased. Apparently Mrs. Bullock wasn’t very proud of her “teacher of the year” status. Either that, or Mia Swims was just a terrible student.

Moving on. Next in the process was spray painting. I took the frames outside, placed them on some newspaper, and got my spray on. I was particularly excited because (for the first time ever!) I did an entire spray paint job without covering my fingers in paint. While they dried, I made my way to the computer to print out some letters. I would have rather used black cardstock, but unfortunately I had every color on earth besides black, so printed letters had to suffice. I will likely go back and use some cardstock and make some new inserts for my frames, but for a first try, I think I did okay.

I took the printed pages and carefully cut out each of the letters. My scissor skills are on a third to fourth grade level, so I made sure to really take my time on this step. Next, I placed one of the pieces of glass onto the music sheets and traced around it. Each frame was a little bit different, but the glass was all the same size. I also practiced my scissor skills and cut these out as well. After all the cutting, I used a glue stick to paste a letter on each of the backdrops. Here’s how they turned out:

Four letters later, I was done, and it was time to frame them! I don’t think anyone needs any additional information on the process of placing a picture into a frame. Fairly self-explanatory; unless of course, you have trouble figuring out which back goes with which frame. Fail!

I’m not exactly sure where I’m going to put these, but here are a couple pictures of the final outcome. I think they look pretty decent!

Overall, I was pleased with the outcome, but I am hoping to make some cardstock letters to replace these. Now it’s time to figure out where I should hang these!

What have you CREATED to decorate your home?

Creations For A Cause

Matt and I are extremely blessed in the friendship area and have some of the funniest, most awesome people on the planet in our lives. Two of our favorite people ever are Zach and Jessi Brown! They have three boys all age 6 and under. We adore the boys and have really enjoyed watching them grow up!

Meet the Browns– and no, I’m not talking about that terrible tv show:

Zach and Jessi have always wanted a baby girl and have recently decided to transition into a family of 6 by beginning the process of adoption. We are thrilled for them and cannot wait to watch another one of their children grow!

The boys are excited too and are already making up names for their baby sister. They’ve also decided to help their mom and dad raise funds for adoption fees by following in Zach’s footsteps and creating art.

Currently there are 4 paintings by the boys available for auction on Ebay and instead of trying to describe them, I’ll just let you check them out for yourself:

“Baby Girl” by Rhett (above) is a 4×4 acrylic (and guitar pick) painting on canvas. It is available for auction here!

“New Baby” by Reece (above) is a 4×4 acrylic painting on canvas and is available for auction here!

“Baby Sister” by Ryan (above) is an 8×10 acrylic on canvas. This painting is available for auction and you can bid on it here!

“Little Sister” by Ryan is a 4×4 acrylic painting on canvas that is available for auctionhere!

As you can see, these are some artistic little boys! With a little less than 5 days left on the auction, please take a second and check these paintings out! The boys are so excited to be welcoming a baby girl into their family and you can help!

Also be sure to check out Zachary Brown Art to see Zach’s own work. Some of his paintings are available for purchase and I know you want to add a little abstract spice to your bare walls…

Have you ever CREATED something to help others?

Boutonniere Disaster

Trying to go DIY style for your wedding can be a great, fulfilling way to save some cash, but it can also be the worst, most frustrating decision ever. So far in my planning process, I have experienced both of these feelings. Trying to get ahead on some little things for the wedding, I decided to go ahead and try to make my boutonnieres for the guys. Because I planned on using feathers instead of flowers, I was able to go ahead and do them without having to wait until the day before the wedding.

Although I planned on making a few changes color wise, what I had in mind was something along the lines of this:

Umm, yeah right! I actually thought something like this was completely plausible and headed over to Michael’s to get materials. I grabbed some “wirey jewel things” that do not actually have a name and few different styles and colors of ribbon. Because I already planned on incorporating peacock feathers into a few other wedding decorations, I already had several packs of them (several, as in, I bought 100 feathers because I knew I was bound to mess up on something!). Now I was ready to get started!

The “wirey jewel things” were exactly what I wanted and came six to a pack, but they were all wound up together and needed to be separated to start the project. I struggled with them for about half an hour (no joke) and finally got them untangled:

Let the disaster begin! Because the feathers were so flimsy and the “wirey jewel things” were so sturdy, we found it nearly impossible to attach them together in the position that we wanted. We tried every material possible to make these things look decent: hot glue, wooden skewers for grilling, floral tape, regular tape, tie wraps, and the list goes on. Here are a few examples of the ridiculousness that occurred:

Frustrated beyond belief, I decided to quit. I know, I know, quitters never win and winners never quit, but I was so irritated that I could not breathe. Why was this so difficult and how did someone make the boutonniere in the picture so perfect?

Days later, I turned to one of my best friends and bridesmaid, Courtney, and asked for some help. She’s a Martha Stewart of sorts and also a fourth grade teacher, so she definitely has the patience that I severely lack.

I grabbed all the materials and made my way over to her house to try this out one more time. Being as pessimistic as possible, I poured all the stuff out on her table and told her, “good luck!”

After a couple hours of frustration, she was right in my boat. How could this be so hard when it looks so easy? But her optimism rubbed off on me and we started making some progress. After many, seriously, MANY attempts to figure it out, we found out a few things: the skewers actually worked to keep the feather stable, the thin green ribbon looks better than the thick, and double-sided scotch tape is your best friend.

We finally got it down and they were starting to look great! The only problem was that they started to look great after about 3 hours of frustration and we had to make fifteen of them, haha! We made an assembly line to make things a little faster and busted all fifteen out in less than 2 hours. It may have taken two attempts and several hours, but we finally made my DIY project happen!

Here’s an example of our end result. The ribbon is actually a dark, eggplant color, but the camera makes it look maroon:

So, what do you think? I LOVE them and the hard work that went into them makes me appreciate them even more. Each one is a slight bit little different, but that’s what I love about it- they are unique, just like each one of the feathers.

Hopefully my next peacock feather DIY project will not be as frustrating as these little guys. I plan on making some hairpieces for my bridesmaids that look something like this:

If you love me, you’ll cross your fingers and say a little prayer that this project goes quickly and smoothly! I think it will

What are you CREATING this weekend?

The Greatest Song Ever Written!

Have you ever gathered up things around your house and made them into something new? As someone who enjoys crafts, I do this all the time. But have I ever gathered up lines into a song and made a new one? Definitely not. Mainly because I have no musical abilities at all.

A girl I went to high school with did just that. To show the flaws in pop music and how a majority of popular songs use the same chord progression, Beth took 40+ popular pop songs and combined them into "The Greatest Song Ever Written."

Check it out:

This takes creativity to a new level, and in just 2 weeks, she has gained over 200,000 views on YouTube. I hope you enjoyed it!

Creation comes in many forms. What have YOU created recently?