Crap My Friends Make-Cheap and Easy Wall Art

Hello Blog Friends-

I'm sorry it has been so long since my last post. I've been on spring break and then I came back and had to adjust to the real world. But have no fear, I do have several projects to discuss. But until then, here is a very exciting guest blog post from Susan.

Cheap & Easy Wall Art
It’s time for another installment of “Crap Emily’s Friends Make!”

This Crap project is so easy that I am almost embarrassed—seriously, an un-trained monkey could have done it. Now, I know what you are thinking: “Oh sure, Su-Su that is what people always say about crap projects! And then before you know it 6 hours has gone by, I’m tied up in a mess of glue and modge podge with nothing to show for it!”

Well—I am here to tell you that this project is NO JOKE! It really is so easy that you could potentially train your toddlers to do it if you weren’t concerned about them ripping the paper or getting distracted by plastic dog bones, balls and such. (Editor's Note-Ha ha funny Susan. Way to make fun of my kid because he is attached to a plastic dog bone rather than a blankie or something. I'm Facebooking your mom and getting an embarrassing story from your childhood. I won't however tell Little Man what you said because then he would be sad and probably cry.)

I am very fortunate that I actually have a crap room at my house. It’s this beautiful space where I am at peace and spend hours upon hours of time working happily on all my projects. Okay, that is kinda a lie. I really do have a space, I am trying to make it more beautiful and who am I kidding. I never have hours upon hours of time to do what I really want to do which is CRAFT! (I love this room, I want to hide there. Well, now I can't I just told you all my hiding spot.)

I’ve desperately needed some art for one of the walls. Since it’s a craft room I wanted it to be bright, full of color, inspiring and just fun. But let’s face it—I’m cheap! So the thought of hitting up the local Art Galleries (Local Art Galleries-HA! That's funny) in the hopes of finding something really amazing wasn’t an option. I’ve left the wall blank thinking that eventually I would find something that could go there. And then I did—in Staples of all places!

It really is amazing where crap inspiration will hit you. Around Christmas time I was in K-Mart where I got a great idea for a DIY coffee mug to go with an office set I made Emily. I went into Staples to get a mailing tube and saw 2012 calendars on clearance. A Mary Engelbreit one caught my eye and made me think of my crap room! I thought I could take it apart and frame some of the calendar pages. So I bought the calendar and then went to Hobby o’ Lobby to see if frames were on sale (remember: NEVER pay full price for anything at Hobby o Lobby!) Lo and Behold they were 50% off (it’s as if the stars aligned for me to complete this project!)

The supplies:

I took apart the calendar and thought I would need to use my Fiskars paper cutter to cut them down to 12x12 size—but once I had them apart and placed them in the frames they fit perfectly and no trimming was needed! Even better! The instructions here are pretty simple—take apart the calendar. Figure out which prints you want. Pop open the frames and presto! Instant Art! I told you it was easy!

Initially I was only going to do two but then I found a third frame in my crap room that wasn’t being used for anything else—BONUS! So I decided to do a third. They are perfect and just what I needed for the space. The other BONUS is that you could easily change them out with different photos. I also think they would make a fun gift for someone. I think next year I am going to go on the hunt for clearance calendars with this idea in mind.

Here is the finished product on my wall:

Thank you Susan for a great post. However, you forgot to mention one very important supply. What kind of wine were you drinking :)

Journal Calendar

I have to be very careful right now about what I blog about. It is Christmas, the season of giving...people crap you make. This week's blog entry is a Christmas gift for someone. I don't think this person reads my blog, but you never know. Person who this is for, sorry if I ruined the surprise.

I found the inspiration for this gift on Pinterest (duh!). This is what I saw (the source is http://www.designsponge.com/)

It is a journal calendar. Each day has a card and on the card you write the year and something that happened/you did/special about that day. What a great, easy way to keep a journal. You don't even have to use sentences, how awesome is that?! And each day you get to look back and see what happened in the years past.

Now, I love the idea but the example just isn't my style. I needed something a bit more refined. And while this isn't for me, it is made by me so I had to adapt the design. Plus, I don't know where to find those little basket things and I don't have any old, sorry vintage, postcards.

Let me walk you though what I did.

Supplies

I used 4 packages of 4x6 lined index cards. You will need 366 cards (some years February has 29 days, don't forget that day). For some reason they don't make packages of 366, so you will need to round up. You don't have to use lined cards, but I think the lines will keep things neater as the years go on.

1 sheet of 12x12 card stock to use for the box. This card stock could be plain or decorative.

3 sheets 12x12 card stock to use for the dividers

Something to add the dates to the cards. I used scrapbook stickers for the dates and the months. If you have nice handwriting or a stamp you could use these. I don't have either so I let Hobby Lobby do the work for me.

Not pictured but used: double sided tape, a quilting ruler, a rotary cutter, a cutting mat, a butter knife

Let's start with the box. Because I had no idea how to make a paper box I needed a tutorial. I used this one http://www.stampendous.com/Projects/Recipe+Box+by+Debi+Hammons/1815 While the original pattern would work well for a recipe box, it didn't work for what I needed so I made some adjustments.

I scored two sides 2 3/4" from the edge. Then I trimmed 3/4" from the other two sides and scored 3" in. I use my quilting ruler and rotary cutter for this. If you have a good paper cutter you could use that. And don't judge, my blade was already dull so I need to change it before my next fabric project anyway.

(Ok, time for a true confession. I forgot the sheet of paper that has the actual measurements on it so I'll have to double check later. If you really need to make this tonight, just give me a call or leave me a note. Sorry.)

This is where the butter knife comes in handy. I don't scrapbook and I don't make cards so I don't have one of those really cool scoreboards that I see in some tutorials. However, I do quilt and I do make toast so I have a cutting mat, ruler, and butter knife. Use the ruler as your guide where you need your score marks and then use the dull side of the butter knife to run a score mark. It works really well and makes things really easy to fold.

Then you just clip the short side of the corners to the fold. There should be four cuts, two on one side and two directly across. I don't think it matters which score you actually cut. The directions say to cut the small side but I think I changed the pattern enough that there really isn't a small side.

Fold the box up and use double sided tape to keep it all together. Use your judgement if you want the tabs on the inside or the outside.

That is your box. It is actually really easy and fast. I just didn't take notes when I did it. Ok, I did take notes but I forgot them at home.

Now for the calendar. I decided to make dividers for each month and only put the date on the card. I cut the dividers so they were 5"x6". This size is enough taller than the cards that the month can be seen above the card but not too high to look goofy. I used scrapbook stickers for each month.

Each index card got a date in the corner. I also put the number of the month on the back corner of each card. That way if you ever drop it or my kids come to visit it can be put back in order.

That is it. It is a very simple project, it just takes time to put all 366 (don't forget February 29) stickers on the cards.

I think this would be a great baby shower gift. I wish I would have done something like this when the little people were born. I'm not a journaler or a scrapbooker so it would have been an easy way to remember special visitors, landmark events, firsts, and some of those ordinary things you forget about. Yesterday could have been "Little Man and Little Princess had to take their naps in their snow boots. Their feet got sweaty."