August Project #1 - Wall Art

I know, I know...Pinterest can be a HUGE waste of time. But I'm getting some fun ideas as well. I've had this beautiful blue wall above our loveseat just begging to be dressed up a little bit. But with my new "stay at home" status, money is a bit tight for fun things like wall art. Then I discovered this site.

For about $15, I could make my own wall art. Well...everything was going swimmingly. I purchased the length of shelving and had them cut it down...except that a 1 foot by 10 foot piece of shelving really isn't 12 inches deep. It's like 11 1/2 inches. No worries...I just made sure they cut them square for me at Lowes.

Then to pick 9 pieces of scrapbook paper I liked. Except that there was a horrible shortage of beautiful papers in browns. So I bought a book of coordinated papers. All is well...would have been better on sale, but I was itching to get started.

I did have to trim my pages (because the boards weren't 12 inches square.) I trimmed them about 1/8" shorter because they stretched a bit with the homemade Mod Podge. (You can find that yourself on Pinterest...lots of good recipes out there.)

Now...the step that really threw me off was the part about using distressing ink on the edges. That was just a spectacular Pinterest fail. (Sorry...no pictures.)

So I bought ANOTHER book of coordinated scrapbook paper (Wal Mart, this time...quite a bit cheaper), scraped all the other papers off and started over. Without the distressing ink.

Before I glued them on the boards the second time, I laid everything out so I could decide which paper went where.

Once the glue was dry, my handy husband put hangers on the back. I marked my wall with a level and carpenter's square (I'm so proud of how well I can use tools!) And hung my finished blocks.

I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out.