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I've been busy since school got out. I revised some wall art that didn't live up to my standards and I painted, filled and hung some frames that have been sitting around the house for a year and a half.

Two Christmases ago, I received some custom frames from my aunt, Mary. This is what they looked like before I pushed up my sleeves:

Okay, so I had already pushed up my sleeves a little. I tend to get a little impatient and forget to take pictures along the way. That blue one in there wasn't always blue. It didn't stay blue for very long. I ended up painting all of them white:

I simply sanded each frame just a bit then used some leftover white trim paint to coat them. If I would have used spray paint, the process would have been much quicker, but I didn't have any on hand. I ended up having to coat them all about four times to get a good even look.

After painting them, I arranged them in a way I liked (which can also be seen above). Then, I traced each frame on construction paper. I cut out each square and taped them to the wall in the same orientation that I chose earlier. I put a nail right into the wall through the construction paper. This was sort of an arbitrary process. I just estimated about half an inch from the top in about the middle of the paper. I figured I didn't need to measure since the frames were sort of randomly assembled anyway. When I was finished, I tore off the paper to leave the nails exposed and ready for service.

Finally, I cut scrapbook paper to fit each frame. Here's what happened:

I'm ultra happy with the results of this project. It was especially satisfying because it provided me with (almost) instant gratification. The painting took a while since I had to use real paint, but the tracing and the filling took little more than a half hour. Plus, it was free! I had had the frames for over a year, I have a zillion pieces of scrapbook paper on hand, and I already had the construction paper, nails and tape. Free is always good -- especially when you feel like you've been spending a lot on a certain office/craft room project.

Just a couple more steps before the room is complete! What do you think so far?

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