A Hoppin' Party: Decorating with Frames

You know how they say you take lots of photos of your first child, but then you sort of forget to with your second? They say it's only because you're so busy by the time the second one comes around. While that is true with me, I also had the added problem of a dead camera and a lousy cell phone camera for much of Liam's first year. I've almost cried for all the photos that could have been. So, I went through all my photos from the last year and pulled all the best ones. These I used to decorate the party in several ways. I think it was my way of making it up to Liam.

First up is what I call my clothes line frame.






I had the idea after seeing a tutorial on how to create a knock-off of this Pottery Barn cutie.

(Source)

First I used a dry brushing technique to paint the frame, but did two layers so that there is just a little of the dark wood showing underneath the paint. Then, instead of wires, I just hot glued thin grosgrain ribbon to the back of the frame to make the "clothes lines". I did my lines 2 inches apart. I glued all the ribbon down on one side and then once the glue hardened; I pulled them as tight as I could while gluing the remaining ends.

Then I bought some tiny clothespins from Hobby Lobby.

To give them a well-used weathered look:

Begin by mixing a couple squirts of black acrylic paint and water in a disposable cup; stir it so there are no clumps of paint. Then add the clothespins and stir them around. Check on them regularly until they have absorbed the tinted water and have the weathered look you want. Then place them on a drop cloth or stack of paper towels to dry.



After pinning some photos to the lines, I wanted to fill in the blank spots. I knew I wanted a little banner. All it took was a little ribbon, some cute paper and glue.

1. Cut 2 inch by 2 1/2 inch rectangles from your scrapbook paper. Make a mark at a half inch on the longer side and 1 inch on the shorter side.

2. Make a fold at the half inch mark.

3. The 1 inch mark is the point of the smaller angle of an isosceles triangle. While still folded, cut from the mark to the corners to make the triangle. Glue or tape the fold down with enough room left to run the ribbon through it.

4. I added Liam's name to the banner by taking some small paper circles and stamping the letters onto each one. I then took the circles and ran the edges across a silver stamp pad to create some definition. Then I glued them to the triangles. The banner is then hung with more clips.

To finish it up, I added some cute birthday stickers to the remaining scrapbook paper and clipped to the lines. It's so cute, the pictures do not do it justice! It will be fun to change this out for different seasons, holidays and celebrations.

Another way I used photos was to simply frame them and display.

Easy Peasy!

Some time ago, this window was found on the side of the road. It needed a little white paint to freshen it up, but then I took some sand paper to the edges and a few other spots so it would look a little time worn. Then I cut some scrapbook paper to fit the window panes and adhered the kid's Easter photos to the paper. I placed the papers on the back sides of the window panes, and because I'm not likely to want to change this out any time soon, I piped hot glue around the edges of the papers to keep them in place and make sure the edges didn't buckle.

The best thing about these projects is that the time I spent on them wasn't just for party preparation. These are things I am now displaying in my home.

Linked to Get Your Craft On.