I really love...

...projects!

I should clarify...I love projects that involve some sort of craft, redecorating, rearranging things. :)

So this involves 2 projects.

The first is a photo collage above our couch my sister-in-law helped me do at the beginning of March.

 My inspiration was this collage on Young House Love (if you don't read their blog, you are missing out!) in their daughter's room.

 Then I had to redo the whole thing a few weeks later because the house got painted. :)

*I just realized this picture looks super sloppy! I was a at a goofy angle, but I promise they are better spaced out and straight....this picture makes it look weird!*

The blessing for that was that I discover these 3M velcro picture hangers!!

If you haven't seen or tried these babies, let me tell you....they are awesome.

I found them at Target.

Hanging a photo collage is super hard because you have to measure where each photo hanger on the back on the frame is....they are all different....you measure wrong a few times...grrrrr....

with these velcro hangers, you stick 'em on the frame, press 'em on the wall and wall-ah! ;) You are done. No peppering the walls with nail-holes until you get it right. Which is nice for us, since we are renting. :)

I had a mini-level that I held against each frame while I hung it, so I didn't have to worry about it getting off-kilter.

Anyway...sorry the pics aren't the best...I was in a hurry. You can't see it, but I had tweedle-dum in his excer-saucer begging for a nap....and tweedle-dee clinging on my leg, whining (ugh, the whining!) to go outside....

;)

Along with pictures from when we were dating, married and kiddos.....I added non-picture stuff for variety.

Hobby Lobby is AWESOME for this kind of stuff, by the way.

They have 50% off frames and knick-knacks all the time. Never pay full price when you go there, people. It will always be on sale in a day or two. :)

Project #2 involves the silhouette I did of Adelyn.

I used to go to a friend's house when I was growing up. They had one for each of the kids and I always wanted one. 

I decided it's going to be a new tradition for our kids. When they turn 2, they get a silhouette :)

I picked 2 because that's when there's more of a distinction between boy/girl appearance (like pony-tails!)  but they still have that "baby-ness" about them. :)

You can send photos in to websites who will do it for $50, but I did mine for less than $5 :)

I didn't take pictures of the process, but here is my super-easy how to.

Take a picture of your child (preferably against white wall or something for easy tracing). Adelyn was watching a movie when I took mine :)

Supplies needed:

photo

cardstock (I used black for silhouette and antique white for mounting, more contrast)

x-acto knife

tape

glue

Order a print in a large size (I ordered 8x10 and 5x7 because I wasn't sure how big I wanted it to be)

Tape black cardstock to large cardboardpiece.....or wood would be better if you have it.

Tape picture over top of cardstock.

Use X-acto knife and slowly trace around silhouette.

That's it!

I taped Adelyn's silhouette to antique-white cardstock.

I kept the photo tracing in case I want to redo it in the future.

Not bad, right?

SO easy.

I promise :)