fabric projects for nitwits part I

As promised, here is the first of my fabric projects…wall art! Framing some fabric is a great way to get cute wall art for very little $$. I had bought some frames from IKEA when we moved and had put some scrapbook paper in them, which had very dissatisfying results. See below...

Kind of bleh, am I right? So...I was watching and waiting for inspiration to come…and then found this great fabric!

I found that the best way to get framed fabric to look crisp and unwrinkled in the frame is to 1) iron it and 2) staple it to the back of the frame so it doesn't pull or bunch. I just used a plastic stapler, mass producing many crooked staples as I went. I'm sure a heavy duty stapler would do a much better job. Make sure you measure the fabric before cutting it; eyeballing is very dangerous, and you don't want to waste your precious fabric if you're cheap like me and only buy what you really need.

I should mention that I broke the glass in the larger frame in the process of framing the scrapbook paper. This was very disappointing, because without glass it’s hard to get a “finished” look, which is so necessary when trying to pass off something as art (that actually isn’t…shhh). So I had this idea of doing something 3-dimensional in the frame to make it look like the missing glass was on purpose. I first tried to make an “L” with some orange scrapbook paper to put on top of the fabric. This might have been cute with glass over it, but without the glass it looked hopelessly handcrafted and not at all art-esque. I didn’t even take a picture; I was so embarrassed of it. But I did take pictures of cutie-pie Reeves (we were babysitting for some friends) with his matching mini letter "R" I cut out for him. He was so proud of it!

After my failed attempt (shame), I took the whole frame with me to Hobby Lobby to try out a few of their 3D letters. And lo and behold, I found a great one for only $5!!! Wall décor was 50% off this week. (Who doesn’t love Hobby Lobby sales?!) I hammered some nails into the back of the frame to hang it. Voila!

Not at all homemade looking! I love the distressed gold! And here is the smaller frame.

Hope you enjoyed! Stay tuned for more projects...