Monet? Van Gogh? Scrapbook Paper?

Why hello! Anyone notice anything different about Ten June?? That's right, folks, I've got a new blog layout! The amazingly talented Marina from Penny Lane Designs helped design the new Ten June. I'm in love! From the layout to the style to the font, it's exactly what I was looking for. She did a great job! So welcome to the new and improved Ten June. 

We've also made a mini-improvement somewhere else around here. When David and I moved into our house a few months ago, the front bedroom belonged to the previous owner's eight-year-old daughter. Here's a refresher of what it looked like before we moved in, just in case you don't remember.

Helloooo, Pepto Bismol. Super cute for a little girl but not so much for our main guest bedroom. So, we stocked up on a few cans of paint + primer combo and switched over to a much gentler light green color. And no, it wasn't very much fun to paint over a hot pink ceiling!

For the last couple of months (since the big paint makeover), this room has been left sort of empty without anything on the walls. David and I decided that we didn't want to allocate too much moolah for decorating the room (we had already shelled out about $100 for paint and about $150 for the new bedding). Let's just say our budget was somewhere around.... $20. Okay, so maybe we planned to spend a little bit more than that, but you get the gist. While it was quite easy to fill up the windowed wall with the dresser (who, by the way, is just begging to be refinished- another project, another day!!) and mirror, the wall adjacent to the doorway had a big, open space that needed to be filled.

I decided that because the wall is so large, a couple of prints just wouldn't do it. So I headed over to Wally World and bought a bunch of cheap wooden frames. I chose a couple of frames in each of the various sizes that my local store had. After adding a few unused frames from our collection at home, it was time to spray paint. I broke out the white high gloss spray paint and the frames transitioned from mismatched wood tones to a crisp, clean white set of frames.

Then, it was time to hang the frames. David and I played around with the layout of the frame collage on the floor. I've seen lots of suggestions to sketch and cut out paper models of the frames so that you can move them around easily and test out the layout of the collage without putting too many holes in the wall. While that's an excellent idea, I'm a little too lazy for that, so I just went straight for the hammer and nails. :)

So here's the picture frame layout we ended up with. I'm not sold on it- in fact, I think we need a few more frames to even it out. I also think we may have gone a little high with the group, but it's a big, empty wall, so it may take awhile to fill it up and get it just right.

Up next? Time to actually fill the frames! Don't forget our cheapola budget... in all honesty, we had maxed out the budget with the frames and spray paint, so the art had to be free. I rummaged through my art and scrapbook stuff that I found around the house, found a couple of images and quotes from Google, and voila! I've got art. Here's what I ended up with. [Please excuse the limey color that these pictures somehow turned into from camera to computer- the wall color is actually a lovely shade of light green!]

Let's take a closer look. The smaller frames are simply filled with funky scrapbook paper.

This frame is simply a cute quote I found online, printed on some shiny scrapbook paper.

It's twin sized frame holds a few scrapbook buttons (fabric covered brads with a little sparkle on them). I'm not sure I'm loving what's in this frame, but it is a good start and I really like the dimension that the buttons bring to the mix.

After reading this genius post on Young House Love, I decided to add some color to the picture frame collage with several Martha Stewart paint chips. That's right, these are just the free paint chip samples that I picked up from Home Depot. Can we say free art?! I love the modern aspect and the beautiful color that these bring into the room.

I also printed a few botanical print images off of Google images.

The piece de resistance is actually a really fun project that I've got coming, so stay tuned. Until then, all we've got in the center of the collage is a blank canvas.

Well, you may think I'm crazy for using Home Depot scraps and Google images, but I'm pretty happy with my DIY cheap art! The fact that it's cheap and done by yours truly gives me the chance to switch up the art, instead of feeling obligated to keep an expensive piece in place. While I wish I could fill every wall with fine art, sometimes scrapbook paper will just have to do! Here's the current shot of the guest bedroom wall.

Linking up to:
http://www.betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/
http://thediyshowoff.blogspot.com/
http://www.skiptomylou.org/2010/01/04/made-by-you-mondays/
http://craftskeepmesane.blogspot.com/
http://todayscreativeblog.net/
http://craftedition.blogspot.com/
http://www.bluecricketdesign.net/
http://somedaycrafts.blogspot.com/
http://www.fingerprintsonthefridge.com/
http://serenitynow4amanda.blogspot.com/
http://www.bystephanielynn.com/
http://tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com/

Happy Fall Y'all!

Sorry for the cheesy title, but I knew I had to break it out somewhere! :) Let's just say it has been a true, blue Monday around here. Aren't we all a little frazzled when we start off the week? Whew. Thank goodness for Tuesdays to help us move on from Mondays!

With that said, I wanted to (finally!) share some of my fall decorations. Some of it is hand-made and some if it is store-bought. Or, if you're my mom, it's all "made" in the sense that "I made it to the store and back!"

Unfortunately, many of these pictures aren't of the best quality. I'm away at work during the day so I don't always have the best picture-taking conditions (obvious photo tip from Michelle: 11 PM when it's pitch black dark outside is not a good time to take pictures without a flash!). Hopefully they turned out half-way decent.

Without further introduction... the fall collection :)

homemade wreath on our front door

I actually made this wreath a couple of years ago, at our old house. I didn't want to spend $50 on one of the beautiful wreaths at Hobby Lobby, so I made my own for about $12. All it took was a wire wreath and a few strands of fall greenery. Even though I made it a few years ago, doesn't it look absolutely perfect with the red front door on our house now?! Love it! (PS- I spy a couple of puppy dogs peeking through the front door! They're probably thinking WHAT is she doing??!)

homemade front door wreath close-up

Hobby Lobby pumpkin

homemade fall leaf arrangement on right wall

homemade fall leaf arrangement close-up

This little guy was just a sparkly bunch of leaves ($3, Hobby Lobby) and a wicker sconce ($3, Hobby Lobby) all found in the floral department.

fall mantle in our living room

I made the potted arrangements on the right of the mantel by sticking some wiry fall greenery into a couple of wicker potpourri balls. Then I just rested them on top of some plainjane flower pots and poof! you've got a decoration.

fall mantle close up

fall mantle close up

Again, sorry for the poor picture quality! Now all I need is a pumpkin spiced latte and some pumpkin cake and we're good to go!

Linked to:
http://www.skiptomylou.org/
Making the World Cuter
http://craftskeepmesane.blogspot.com/
http://theinspiredroom.net/
http://todayscreativeblog.net/
http://somedaycrafts.blogspot.com/
http://www.bluecricketdesign.net/
http://thisblessednest.blogspot.com/
http://www.thethriftyhome.com/

http://www.centsationalgirl.com/
http://hookedonhouses.net/
http://www.thenester.com/
Tater Tots & Jello

DIY Picture Frame Update

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote this post about the DIY picture frame I made for my little sister, Callie, who was going away to college. I wanted something special for her to have in her dorm room, and this is what I came up with. All the project really involves is an open-backed frame, some picture hanging wire, and some clothespins. You can find the "how-to" details on the previous post.

This is Callie's final dorm room art product, where I added family pictures, a family recipe (French Toast!)
and some fun trinkets, all dolled up to match Callie's black and hot pink dorm room.

The final product hanging on Callie's dorm room wall!

As I was making the frame for Callie, I decided that I kind of wanted one too! Since funky black and hot pink aren't exactly the color schemes in my house, I ended up on the opposite side of the spectrum and went (surprise, surprise!) the au naturale route.

I found the perfect weathered wood frame at Hobby Lobby (50% off, of course!) and got to work, adding mainly pictures that my cousin took when she was in town a few weeks ago. I also added a few fun trinkets that are special to David and I.

And here's the finished product!

And some close up shots.

Besides the pictures, we added some things we picked up while we were on our visit to Savannah, Georgia last month. The fun hand-stiched bobble guy is actually stationary that was hand-made by a SCAD (Savannah College of Arts and Design) student! They have an entire store in downtown Savannah that is dedicated to selling the creations of the students, professors, and alumni of SCAD. For those of you who can't make it down to Savannah anytime soon, don't worry, they've got an online store posted here: SCAD Store.

The antique "r" button (for our last name) and the antique number pins (spelling out a number near & dear to our hearts) were also picked up in Savannah at The Paris Market. This store could hands-down be one of the coolest stores I've ever been in. You honestly feel like you are shopping at a Parisian antique flea market! It is super, super cool.

While I really love Callie's fun dorm room art, I am super in love with ours as well! The fun part is that the art is completely interchangeable, so we can mix it up whenever the urge strikes! Here's the frame up in the living room.

I love, love DIY (read: cheap!) wall art, so go ahead and please comment, share and link up to any new DIY art that you may have created lately!

 

Whatever Goes Wednesday on Someday Crafts

Mark Your Calendar!

Here's a little story about a DIY calendar. As you read this post, you may think, "Oh, that's a great idea! Michelle was so clever to come up with something like this for her kids." Newsflash: there aren't any kiddos (yet!) in the Ten June crew. Just my slightly minor obsession with staying organized and calendaring my life away. Like, I was that kid who actually liked my chore chart growing up. But anyways, this calendar is a completely kid-friendly project that I did for our kid-less house (well... the pups have a schedule too!).

For our office calendar, I wanted something fun and functional. Pottery Barn has some absolutely amazing calendar ideas, like so:

Pottery Barn Daily System

But, of course, Pottery Barn's version was waaaay outside my budget. So I took a couple of hints from their catalog and got started with a bulletin board that David has apparently had since his fraternity house days. I had previously stained the outside of the wood frame with dark walnut Minwax.

So far, so great, but it looked a little bare. (By the way, how cute are those letters that our nieces sent us!! We love them!) So I painted the cork board part white and added some ribbon to mark the calendar's days. You can actually see in the picture below where I glued down orange ribbon and pulled it up to replace with green. Lets just say we had a "DIY Calendar Project Take Two" when I realized (after spending about an hour measuring out and gluing down orange ribbon) that I didn't really like the orange color in our office. What can I say, we're Dawg fans, so orange doesn't really work in our house!

You can see I also left a little bit of space on the side to post other things like postcards or reminder notes.

Then I just cut up some scrapbook paper and laminated each square so that you could write (with a dry erase marker) on each day of the month. I attached some good ol' Velcro to the back of each square so I could move the days around according to which  month it is.

Here are the days Velcroed up on the calendar, ready for the month of August.

Okay, now do you see where this project is looking a little kid-friendly?! It's definitely cutesy (wait... doesn't everyone put fake cartoon crabs on their wall calendars to symbolize summer?!) but it makes me smile.

Here's an close up shot.

Yes, that Board of Commissioners hearing I've got on the calendar for tomorrow does mean that I'll be working until at least 10 PM... so basically, instead of "BOC Hearing" it should read "David, don't forget to call the pizza guy!"

And here it is, in the office:

I think it fits right in and we're certainly finding it handy to keep our lives on track. Have you made anything lately that keeps you organized?

PS. <<UPDATE!>> Just because I thought it was pretty cute, here is the September version of our new calendar. Happy fall!

Happily linking up to: