Vintage {thrifty DIY} Wall Art

Okay so this project costs close to nothing!  And super easy. I spent $8 on the whole thing! I am deeply in love with old photographs and pictures. Someone threw out a whole set of vintage encyclopedias and I was the lucky one to find them! I spent a couple days just going through them and looking at the wonderful vintage pictures. I tore out my favorite ones and stored them away. So when I found these frames at the dollar store I knew it would be perfect for these encyclopedia pages. They are wonderful! Simple and chic.

 

 

What you'll need

• Dollar store frames (there is these 11x14" and/or both these 8 1/2 x11")
• Book pages

*I guarantee you if you go to your local thrift store they will have a book for you with something that catches your eye. I've rarely seen a book for more than $2, and they are usually filled with beautiful pictures. Little Green notebook has a little different idea with beautiful moth prints from a book (check it out, they are beautiful!). You could do kids books, nature, maps, encyclopedias, you name it! Try to stick towards a theme and group it together.

So First off I picked out my pages from the book that I loved the most. I just tore the pages out and didn't even bother to cut them out neatly. I like the jagged edge look.

Then I took out the inner cardboard from the frame and flipped it around so that the black is facing the back and the grey is facing you.

Then I just placed the book page in the middle of the frame.

 

 I love how they turned out. Why buy expensive art when books are filled with these things?!

 

Multiple Design Personality Disorder.

Okay this might not be a real diagnoses....but if it was I definitely have it. My sister and I suffer from it. Some may say its a good thing, but we would consider it a curse. Since moving into my house (6 months ago) I have changed my living room around....ohh I would say about close to 10 different times. Every time I step into my sisters house she has at least bought, painted, or completely changed something new. Oh and did mention I go to my sisters ALOT! See we love old things, but love modern new things as well. Oh and color? We can't get enough of color...but then we realize it just gets to be to much! Space on a wall? Whats that? We need things EVERYWHERE! Colors, patterns, oh my! WERE DO WE DRAW THE LINE? My head hurts just thinking about it.  We were both complaining to our mother about this multiple design personality disorder and mom put us in our place....she said it just perfectly..... "Girls, just surround yourself with things you love and it will be beautiful." Wow mom, you are one smart cookie. So I wanted to leave you with that....surround yourself with things you love and it will be beautiful...what ever it is!

 

 

So, I am currently suffering from this today. I got this lamp at a thrift store and wanted to paint the inside and bottom gold parts a funky color. I bought the lamp a week ago. But when checking out my favorite blog http://www.vintagerevivals.com/2013/02/musical-lights.html I became obsessed with her industrial light. I went out searching for one and wowzers I found one like it for $2! So I think I might have to replace it already? maybe? perhaps? Oh boy my disorders kicking in high gear right now.

 

Unique {gift} on a budget

This truly can be given at anytime, any moment, for any reason....well you get it!  It's a handy dandy gift to give when you are in a bind trying to give that perfect something with meaning and {something that doesn't cost a fortune} As you have probably noticed throughout our blogs we like to be penny savvy {every penny we save is a penny that can be spent thrifting.  Truly $1 and go a long way!}  

I saw this idea on pinterest and checked out Shanty-2-Chic Blog!

LOVED IT!  I just tweaked it a little to fit the style I was looking for.  Here is my quick version of this letter art!

What You Need:

• 4x6 frames from the Dollar Store {amount depending on the length of name}
• A board that is pre-cut from Menards or Home Depot or a Salvaged Piece of wood that already has character  {tip I brought my frames inside the store so I made sure that the name would fit on their nicely} This usually costs in between $5-$10
• Stain/old rag
• Paint/paintbrush in this case I just used a white indoor latex paint
• ruler
• E600 glue and this can truly be found anywhere {Menards, Micheals, Acme Tool, Walmart etc}
• vaseline {you will see why in a little bit}

Start off by staining your piece of wood.  I did this step so when you paint it and sand it, it has some contrast between the white paint and the wood to give it a rustic/vintage look.

Let the stain dry overnight.  The next step is to rub Vaseline around the edges of the wood on the corners and random spots on the wood.  Where you place the Vaseline the paint will not adhere as well and you can rub it off giving it an amazing look. See picture below! 

Once you get your Vaseline in all the right spots paint board! & take apart the frames and paint the frames while you are at it as well!

Once they are dry take a piece of sand paper and lightly sand the edges of the frames, and the wood where you had applied the Vaseline!

It's starting to come together! 

Now it's the fun part to pick out they style of letters to go in the frames!  There is an awesome Flickr site that has tons of letters to choose from!  Download those letters you can either print them off right there at home or I had them printed at a photo center just to give them a glossy more professional look!

Add the glass back to the frames insert your picture {On some frames you cannot add the cardboard piece back on because it will stick out from the wood, some just remove the standing thing but I just left the entire thing off completely}

Add your E600 to the back of the frame {make sure your frame is all measured out evenly} and stick into place.

Allow glue to dry and then add your hanging hardware to the back and That's it!  You have an amazing gift for that special someone.  Super cute for a new baby, wedding gift, house warming gift, anniversary, "it's the gift that keeps on giving".  hahaha. Love that line! Enjoy! And Thank you Shanty-2-Chic for your inspiration!

Can organization be fun? I think so....

Okay I am not one of those {crazy} people who enjoy organizing things (I am jealous of those whom enjoy in doing so...ya, you know who you are....). I'm one of those people whom has everything, everywhere in my house. When I'm looking for a glue stick, there is about 5 different spots were those glue sticks are. Yep, it's a bit crazy. So I've been thinking of ways in order to be a bit more organized. But it has to be cute and most definitely fun. So I got super excited when I found these awesome glass containers at the dollar store! I HEART AWESOME DOLLAR STORE FINDS!

   

They have a edge/area to paint chalkboard paint on them so no taping/measuring required! click here to check them out. The awesome thing about these is that you don't have to just use them for crafts supplies but also in the kitchen for sugar, flour, tea, coffee, or in the bathroom for cotton balls, q tips, etc. The options are endless! *This is when I jump up, fist in air while clicking my heels....HOORAY!*

What a cheap way to organize...right?