Picture wall / photo display tutorial

Ok everyone, you know how I've been planning to do a photo collage on the wall in my entryway? Well today I did it!

It's not *quite* finished yet, because I still have tons and tons of pictures I'd like to display haha...so  I plan to add a couple more small 4x6 frames possibly to the sides. I'll  have to see how I feel  about it in a week  or two. Maybe I"ll just have to make another photo collage wall somewhere else too :-)

Since these photo walls are apparently all the rage in home decor right now (like how many have you seen on Pinterest people?!) I thought I'd  share a little tutorial how-to of how I completed *this* masterpiece. (And by the way, Lee helped too---he went around and straightened everything up for me so they hung straight :-)

Ok, so first, when planning your photo wall you pretty much have a couple choices. One, you can do the streamlined look---matching frames that are all identical in various sizes (or even buy a "kit" that comes with all the matching frames ready to hang)....Two, you can have a few different frames but carefully plan out the arrangement so that they are all hung *exactly* even--one inch from eachother on all sides for example. Now both options one and two are perfectly fine....but for me own personal taste having the identical frames is a little "eh"--boring :-) And two, hanging them all in a very measured and exact arrangement looks great but sounds like waaaaaay too much work to me for a stinkin' wall of pictures LOL. So, option three people is the way I went--it's more specifically called "gather all  the random frames you already have in your house, lay them out to get the "gist" of how you want them to hang, start nailing them up in a random design so that it doesn't matter if they are spaced evenly or not, and then stand back to admire your work!

Option three is awesome in my opinion hehe. I love the way it turned out and I especially like the  mismatched frames because it helps tie together all  the different wood and metal tones we have throughout our house. I did decide to keep this display for "professional" photos only just so that visually  the photo editing, etc. all kind of went together. So we have the girls' pictures, some from our wedding and engagement sessions, etc. I need to put up some professional pics of our nieces and nephews too yet. This arrangement will constantly have the pictures  swapped out I'm sure as new ones come in!

Ok, so step one is to lay out all of your frames on the floor. I played around with a few arrangements....just trying to make sure I  had horizontal vs. vertical evenly spread throughout the arrangement and I didn't want matching frames right  next to eachother, etc. 

^^The end result differed from this because we determined that a couple of the frames didn't hang nicely on the wall, and the top middle picture frame broke when Lee  dropped it :-P

Then I took chalk and sketched out the design on the wall. I did this *very* loosely, meaning I just got the overall gist of it on the wall. I measured the overall height and width of the entire display and marked that on the wall so that it would end up centered on the wall etc....but the individual pictures within the display I just hung  up by "eyeballing" it. I figured as long as each individual picture hung straight it didn't really matter if two of them were 1 inch apart and another two were 3 inches apart, etc. It's just a random design!

Once I chalked out the general idea I started hanging pictures up. I started with the larger frames and then it was easier to fill in the empty spots with the smaller frames and still keep the overall display looking somewhat planned out. I let Lee hang the wooden "Family' sign because it was heavy!! (By the way, I scored this awesome sign today for 50% off at Hobby Lobby...only paid $14 :-) I also bought the little plaque for $5 today---all the other frames we already had. I just wanted a couple non-frame items to spice up the collage a little bit.

^^At this point I didn't worry about the pictures hanging straight---I was just getting them on the wall. Focus on one thing at a time or else it gets overwhelming when working with so many frames!

And the end result---LOVE :-)

It's eclectic and fun and doesn't look like you bought a boxed set at the store--using what you have already is always a plus, right?! The top picture of Raya at age 9 months will be replaced by one of Brielle's  new photos when I get it--right now the display is "favoring" Raya, but that's just what I had on hand that worked in the frames. ....we all know Brielle is really my favorite ;-)  Just kidding!

Here is the little plaque I got--it's the quote that we had on our wedding invitations so I thought that was a fun personal touch.

And some of the pictures--I love seeing my cute girlies! This photo wall can be seen from the kitchen, dining room, and living room, so it's the perfect place to display photos that I want to show off hehe

One of our engagement pictures

My long time readers will recognize this newborn photo of Rayana--one of my all time favorites still!

Excuse the fingerprints on the frame--need to clean them still :-P

And Brielle just had her 9 month session this morning (which went great by the way! I have no idea how the pictures will turn out but in real life she looked adorable! We went downtown on main street for a few and we had people stopping on the street to ooh and ahh over her. And she was happy and smiley quite a bit too. I will let you all know when I get the pic back---probably about 2 weeks.)  ...anyways, Brielle had her 9 month session today and this is one of Raya, also at 9 months old. I really do see a ton of resemblance! How'd I get the 2 cutest little  girls on earth? :-)

So anyways, there are some tips if you're planning your own photo wall--hope it was helpful! Now to start dreaming up my next project --Pinterest here I come!

A smallish house/ Halloween picture update :-)

First off, remember the sad and lonely white slip picture I posted a few days back, which was to become Brielle's angel costume for Halloween? Were you, like me, a little worried that poor Brielle would be going in a sad white slip while her sister had an entire devil get-up? Well have no fear, I have successfuly turned the slip into an angel extravaganza :-)

I had a silver headband which made a great "belt" accent, the little gray and white polkadot shoes I already had--they are one size too big but they'll be fine for one day, the wings Lee cut out of cardboard for me and then I covered them in silver tissue paper which I had "crinkled"--I still need to attache elastic straps to hold the wings onto her body :-)  And then the halo isn't finished yet but you kinda get the idea. I took pipe cleaner and wrapped it in white tulle and formed a halo. I still have to cut it down and attach it to a headband for her to wear. Then she'll have a white long sleeve shirt and silver leggings on underneath!!

View from the back...

Hopefully the girls will cooperate for at least one picture together on Halloween!!!

In house decorating news, I've completed a couple little projects recently. First, remember the picture I found on pinterest that had towel hooks hanging in a kids bathroom, with a picture of each kid above their respective towel? Well here is my version:

We did three hooks so that it'll be all ready to go when we have our last baby. So for now the  middle hook just has a picture of the two of them together. I might eventually put bath pictures of them in the frames, but for now I just used some of their professional photos.

I love how it turned out and now when guests are sitting on the toilet they have adorable pictures to look at LOL :-) And the girls can always remember which towel is theirs. (Ignore the weird shadow on the wall there)

The only little problem was that I was looking for cheap silver frames and when I bought them I didn't realize their wasn't a hook to hang them from! They were meant to sit on a table. So I ended up attaching them with little ribbons for now.

One more picture for good measure--it's pretty much the most complete room in the house LOL. I still need to get some cute hand towels and maybe a fun picture to hang above the towel bar.

And now for my 2nd project recently....my sewing nook. It's just barely unpacked, so very little actual decorating has occured!

All the stuff in/on the old entertainment center is pretty much scrapbooking/pictures/etc. I don't scrapbook much anymore, but I use all  of that stuff  constantly when doing arts and crafts with the kids. Then the other bookshelf has the work related books/texts that I  wanted to save for when I go back to work and also all  of my crochet stuff and tulle for making tutus. In between is my sewing machine area. Up on the wall I hung all my ribbon using a trouser hanger. I had gotten that idea off of Pinterest and it works great! Then my big desk currently is covered in crap I have yet to put away....but it'll be wear I draw out all my shirt designs and cut my fabric and stuff.

So anyways, not too "pretty" right now, but it's hard b/c I don't have the money to buy a fancy desk/organizational system so I am kind of stuck using odds and ends peices of furniture. And since this sits in the corner behind the family room area I can't paint it or do any crazy decorating because this room is technically supposed to be Lee's man area :-P

Here is how it looks from the stairway. In a week or so when we take down the cardboard fort the room will feel a lot less cluttered!

To end, today Raya and I made a cake for Lee and my anniversary...yum!

I told her to sit the stuff on the table for later when we would  make it....she was horrified that we weren't doing it right that second!

Then a little later she was playing with my tape measurer and said "I go show Brielle!" and I said, "no, you can't show Brielle the tape measurer right now because she's sleeping" ....so then she said "Ok, I got show the cupcakes!" and she proceeded to go have a conversation with the cake mix and frosting on the table....she was all "Hi cupcakes! Look at me!"  hahaha...what a goofball

Then it was time to cook!

She just loves to crack eggs "all by self Mama!" and also stir :-)

The finished product! We made a  layer cake this time---normally we make cupcakes but a cake felt more "anniversary-ish" hehe

Happy 4th Wedding Anniversary to us!

Today is our 4th wedding anniversary. Raya and I are making a cake :-) The girls are staying overnight with Grandma and Grandpa on Saturday so we'll go out and celebrate more officially then.

Two years ago on our anniversary I did a very indepth blog post about how we met, dating, our wedding, etc. If you missed it, or just want to re-read it in honor of our day you can find that blog post here: http://rayamarie.livejournal.com/28410.html

Enjoy! :-)  ....and I'm pretty sure Lee is going to KILL me for posting this now that he reads my blog LOL. Hey, we were young and dorky....what can I say! haha

Real men wear tutus

Today is Monday which means I was babysitting my niece and nephew. You may remember that really cute picture I posted last Monday---the little matching baby butts of Brielle and Harper leaning over the sandbox playing.

Well today I got another cute "cousins" picture....

Bless his heart, Sawyer can "hang" with all  the  girls! :-) Today we were playing in the "fort" and suddenly Sawyer found Raya's princess crown and decided to put on her tutu and become "Princess Allie". ....for the rest of the day he wore that outfit (he even slept in it for nap!) and him and Raya had a blast playing in their "castle" and hiding from the "queen" LOL.

Sawyer kept saying "Shawna, isn't my dress beautiful?!"  hehe. Now  in his defense he did  also say "this is silly isn't it Shawna? Because I'm a boy and girls wear dresses" The kid  cracks me up :-)

They decorated the castle today with pretty foam stickers

The kids also had fun trying on spooky Halloween masks!

We moved the fort in the basement (now that most of the boxes are unpacked down there!) ....we are going to leave it up for one more week because I'm actually having a Halloween party here Halloween morning. Sawyer and Harper's other Aunt is bringing her boys over for a spooky fun filled morning and I thought the fort would translate well as a haunted house :-P Any other stay-at-home moms around me are free to come to my party too---just facebook me if interested!

Oh, our Tot School art project today (idea from Pinterest of course!) was this cute footprint ghost picture. Let me tell you, painting a bunch of little feet got a little tricky LOL but they all had fun with the "tickly" paint brush on their tootsies! Pictures turned out so cute and Emily liked her spooky foot ghosts :-)

Oh, can't forget the accessory Sawyer added to his get up, just in time for his Daddy to come pick him up  LOL

That's a fake tube  of lipstick  in his pocket...he kept reapplying it and smacking his lips hehe

Brielle is being forgotten...sorry! She's still as cute as ever...I  mean, how adorable is a baby who crawls around with a monkey dangling from her paci all day ?! :-)

And now, switching gears, yesterday evening Lee carved pumpkins! Raya "helped" him draw out his design first...

Then they did the carving out in the garage...Brielle supervised

....and the puppies  stood  guard

...someone needs a haircut again!!!

Raya was fine with pumpkin carving up until the point she actually touched the "gooey" insides....then she was officially  over it haha.

The final product! ...adorning our front porch :-)

Switching gears again (stay with  me people :-)....here is the handprint art we made for my nephew-to-be! He's going to be here next month! The girls are pumped for their new baby cousin's arrival---we can't wait to go snuggle him in December!! Oh, and have I mentioned I know his name?!?! No, I won't be revealing it because it's a secret and I've been sworn to secrecy. But let me just say I should become a detective because I totally figured it out and guessed correctly hehe. I will say it's a completely adorable name and Megan and Shawn have my approval :-P

Ok, one last thing to share tonight....check out my Etsy store closet, now that I've started to unpack! My fabric and shirt/onesie stash is quite a sight, isn't  it?! :-)

And don't forgot about my post from yesterday! If you aren't already a follower of my blog you need to become one to win my Etsy Giveaway! We're talking FREE STUFF YOU GUYS! We've had 5 people start following so as of now those 5 are entered into my drawing to see who wins the free item from my store. But anyone else who becomes a new follower this week will also be entered into that drawing, so don't miss out!!

Loyal followers who've been with me already, don't worry...I have giveaway info coming for you guys too next week. I have so many new cute fabrics to try out as well so you're all in for a treat! I mean, how awesome is this owl fabric?!

Happy Monday everyone! Tomorrow I'm going to take it easy because my Monday has worn me  out! hehe Fun times though--can't wait to show Sawyer his manly tutu pictures when he's older :-P