being crafty: artwork wall

i have been searching for a creative way to hang the kids artwork for a while now.  there are tons of great ideas on pinterest so i wasn't lacking in inspiration, i was just lacking in knowing exactly what i wanted it to be.  i love taking pictures, but i dislike that now with digital pictures and pictures on phones they don't often get displayed in a concrete way.  i wanted to incorporate an easy gallery of pictures into my artwork wall.  and i needed to be able to get all of the supplies for said wall at wal-mart.  well thankfully (i'm surprised i'm thankful...) our wal-mart decided to rearrange again...but with this new arrangement apparently came some new office supplies.  mollie and i gathered up several items that i hoped to put together later that afternoon.


i took a large wall that is by our kitchen table.  it is the first wall you see when you walk in the door from the garage.  there were three pictures hanging on it, but they were easily relocated to other spaces in the kitchen.

Before

as you can see in the picture below, I used the ever scientific measuring method of yellow stickies.  this is not a good method if you happen to be an engineer (dad :) )...in that case use multiple levels and measuring implements.  but for me i needed to wing it and get it done in a few hours at most.  

In Progress

based on the the materials i purchased, i decided to break the wall into three separate segments.  i did three clipboards on the bottom (one for each child), then a picture hanging string and then white boards and cork boards for each of the kids.  i loved the idea of the picture string as a way to rotate current pictures of family and friends.

so far the kids are loving it and like seeing their school work displayed and looking at the pictures.  i love it, it makes me smile each time i walk into the kitchen!  i know it might be too busy for some.  it does limit the clutter i have around the house of school work waiting to be displayed or random pictures, at least now i feel like they have a home.   

DONE!

being crafty: the a-frame tent

this tent has been on my to-do craft list for a while.  i wanted to make one as a gift for a friend and that was just the right boost to get me going.

i am not handy with tools at all.  i wish i was, but i'm not.  so thankfully lowe's had the wood pieces already cut to the size that i needed.  i picked up the twin size sheet at wal-mart.  they didn't have a ton of designs, so i tried to pick something fun.  turned out the vertical stripes were perfect for this project.  

it took about 2.5 hours total to get everything together and that was for two tents.  i did the sewing earlier in the week and lance and the boys used the tools last night.  we set it up so the boys could find it this morning.  they loved it.  hopefully this weekend we will do a mini-camp out inside, complete with s'mores...though they'll be made on our stove since there has been a burn ban most of the summer.