A little Silver for the Wall!

Now from that title you would think I was painting a wall silver, not!  When we added the faux board and batten to the wall back in the summer, we ended up with a wall with nothing on it!  It needed something, but was too high for a mirror, which had been there before.  Here is a pic.

The door to the right is to the powder room, and the other door is to the garage.  We have 4 doors down stairs and this is 2 of them!  So DH said we needed something to go there and I thought of an idea I had pinned from Becca at Blue Cricket Design.  Seemed easy enough and we had some cool pics we had taken in October when DH and I had our weekend fishing trip in the Sierra's.  So here is what we did.

I ordered a 16x20 print from Costco for $5.99!  Then off to Joann's to get the canvas, they were on sale 2 for $10.79.  I decided to paint our edges vs. paper, so black craft paint .50 and then matte mod podge for $4.99 but used a 40% off coupon so $2.99! 

Here is the print
and here is the canvas after I started painting the edges, it did take a few coats.

Once I got it to the color I wanted I gave the canvas and edges a coat of the mod podge, this allows the whole canvas to have the same texture.  Once this had dried I put a towel down then wax paper, then turned the print over and gave it a good coat of the mod podge on the back.  Since the photo paper is thicker that paper it won't bubble, and the wax paper is down so it won't stick!  Then on to the canvas it went.  I used another towel to smooth it out, then added another coat of mod podge over the print.

Then you wait!  Patience has never been one of my strong suits, but I got busy doing something else and it went fast.  When we picked up the print there was a 1/8" border around the whole print.  I used my rotary cutter and ruler to trim that off, but there still was a white edge to the picture.  Once everything was dried, I dry brushed that white edge off with more of the black paint.  I love how this turned out and so much cheaper that ordering a canvas online.  Here it is.

The rocks below it are from the lake.  This is Silver Lake in the Eastern Sierra's in California.  DH took the pic in the morning with the fog still on the lake.  It had snowed 2 days before and the colors were just starting to change.  Now we just need to find a few things to put on either side.  But in the mean time we can enjoy our pic and think about next time we get to go!

Have a great Thanksgiving.

Laura

Link to Silver Lake webcam for your viewing pleasure!

The reason for the season!

While looking for easy holiday ideas on what else, pinterest, I came across this simple but with a message craft from learning-to-be-me,  Since it was raining yesterday, DH and I decided perfect time to make some up.  We found the 2x2's at Lowes for $1.48 each and the lath for .54 for a 4' piece.  Finding the heads for Mary and Joseph is going to be another battle, Joann's just doesn't like to stock shelves!  I found one bag yesterday, but not sure if there were anymore out!  Will have to go back today to check it out.  Anyway...
DH cut the wood and I started painting.  DH made me a great rack to do the heads on, they are frisky buggers, I kept dropping them!

This works great.  Like my Thanksgiving tablescape!  My other large work surface has sewing projects on it, so this was the only one!  We set up an assembly line and got to work.

Since I only had 6 heads to work with only 3 familys are done.

Here is a close up.

I love how they turned out, so simple but effective in getting the message across.  We will be making these for friends and neighbors and a few of DH's co-workers.  Now I just need to find more heads!

Have a great day,

Laura