My quest to find my inner crafty-girl one small project at a time.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Thank you and some art work


First off, I need to say a huge thank you to all of you who have hopped over from Primitive and Proper and have left such nice comments. It's so nice to have encouragement with this new endeavor. Cassie and Melissa at HOUSEography (my only two real-life blogger friends) kept saying how nice people are out there in the blogosphere. And, it's true :) Thank you!!!!

So, my real post is about some home made art work that my mom and I put together. A friend of mine who used to work at Crate and Barrel gave me the idea to frame some fabric, apparently they do that at Crate all the time. So, right around the holidays when my parents came to visit so my dad and my husband could re-do our dining room (I will be posting about that transformation soon, it's A-MA-ZING!) my mom and I decided to tackle a few little projects of our own. The living room opens into the dining room and I wanted to make something with some complimentary colors. The dining room is gray, sweatshirt gray to be exact. (Funny, right?) Anyway, right now our living room is yellow-ish beige, with red couches. Remember, I didn't choose the colors. Well, I did choose the couches, but that was a LONG time ago! I digress, we WILL be painting that room soon, but for now, we needed something that would pull in the gray, the red and the yellow.

Our first stop was Calico Corners, how awesome are these? Unfortunately, they don't just let you cut a yard or two of fabric, you have to order everything (even just a yard) and they send it to you. So, while I really wanted some of those fabrics, I have no patience and wanted it that day. (I also wanted to spend a little less money.) So, after a few more stops we got some great fabric at Joann's. We picked up some batting while we there to make the frames puff a little.
I had bought some thin, black frames at Ikea early that week and we already had the duct tape. I think all told, we spent $20 for the whole project. (I even had some fabric left over to create a little something for the bathroom)

We measured the batting and fabric around the little cardboard insert that comes with the frames. Then, we started pulling and taping. That's right, we used duct tape! I told you we were budget. There wasn't anything for us to staple gun onto, so we just pulled and taped, pulled and taped. We decided not to use the glass on the frame for added puffiness.

Here are the pics:

Here is the back...aka the tape mess:


And another shot of them:






I love the look of it, although something seems like it's missing a little. Maybe a thicker frame? What do you think?

7 comments:

  1. Great idea! I love the flowered fabric. I love the color combination, but I'm partial to yellow and grey (look at my blog). I'm not sure what your wood tones are, but maybe some white spray paint on the frames would make the fabric pop more? But wait, I'm also love white :)

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  2. no problem- happy to give you a proper welcome!
    i love the colors in those fabrics as well and i agree that painting the frame white would look better. or i think they would look great just stretched across a board and stapled in the back, frameless. you could also add a monogram to the inside of one if you wanted to.

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  3. Loving them Amy!....Oh how I could spend all day at Calico Corners!!!

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  4. Hi Amy! Welcome to blogland... ;) Oh and Happy Belated Birthday.

    ~Jazz

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  5. Hi Amy! Your blog looks great, I really like them, especially the floral fabric but agree a chunkier white frame would really make the fabric pop. Cute idea!

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  6. Those are great . . . but you're right. They need something. Hmmmm . . . maybe smaller black frames with black & white photos of your family inside? Turning those fabric frames into big, chunky, pouffy mats?

    I like the sound of the earlier posters' comments, too, about a chunkier frame. (But I like black. ;o)

    You could always build a few out of 1x2's, using the Barn Frame plan from Knock Off Wood . . . cheap, simple, and fun.

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  7. 2 ideas - use a mat around the edge to make the fabric pop. OR, add a picture in the middle so the fabric is the mat.

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