Kitchen Dining Room Wall

The wall in our dining area of the kitchen has been naked since July when we started tearing things apart to get ready for the new windows and siding.  I decided I was going to make things for the walls instead of putting back the things I've had forever.

I liked the way my "Wash Boys" hanging turned out for the laundry room, but I do have more than four grandkids, so I went to my computer and checked the archives for pictures of all six of them.  I had to steal a picture of our little Princess, Marlee, from Sarah's blog.  Isn't she a doll?

And her brother, Nolan, is a little Prince Charming.

We don't get to see these two very often.  That is what makes it hard to have four of the grandchildren with us so often.  I get to feeling guilty about not being able to spend much time with Nolan and Marlee.  Thank goodness Sarah's parents are very close to them and shower them with lots of love and attention. 

I printed their pictures in sepia (Yep.  I assigned each of them a letter again) and printed a red and blue border on taupe colored cardstock.  Then I trimmed the pictures and border sheets to prepare them for adhering to the heavy 8.5 x 11cardboard pieces I keep for such projects. 

Then it was time to put them together.  I liked the Mod Podge look of the "Wash Boys" project, but it is messy and can distort the colors.  After all that tedious trimming of everything, I didn't want to mess with it, so I opted for the user friendly double sided Scotch tape.

After they were all put together, I scratched my head for hours trying to figure out how to make them appropriately presentable.  I had an old balsa wood shelf thingy that I didn't use anymore and thought maybe I could part it out and come up with something.  After a little sawing (go ahead and drool over my personal pink hand saw) I was finally onto something.

 

I marked the center on the back of each picture and used package tape to center a piece of ribbon (good side up if you use the cheap stuff like I do) on each of them.

 

Then I folded the ribbon up over the top of the picture and taped it again with package tape.  

I used my level  and hammer (they're pink too) to hang the balsa wood on the wall and simply tied the ribbons onto the slats of wood, but it took me forever to figure out how I wanted to hang them.  Staggered?  Aligned?  Top, middle, bottom slat?

 

After everything and everyone was in place, I decided the wall needed a little something else.  I wired some euctalyptus and weeds together and hung it above the kids.

  

 As usual, the picture (or perhaps the photographer) doesn't do the project justice.  Oh well, you get the idea.  What I like about the way they hang is that they aren't tight.  They hang above that ugly register which makes them wiggle and move a bit, just like the grandkids : )

I'm sharing this project with Under the Table And Dreaming's Sunday Showcase Party.  Be sure to check out the awesome projects over there!