FREE FREE FREE!

Another FREE decorating project!

 When I started looking at decorating blogs one of the first ones I found was thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com.  I have found some really neat ideas on her blog.  This next one is a great one for me since I change things in my home pretty often.  It is wall art and it is free!

I started with these pictures.  I have had them for years and years.  I have always loved them, they went great with my reds and golds I had in my home.  Since I have been changing out my colors, it was time for a change.

The first thing I did was go to nyc digital gallery.  This web site is awesome!!  It gives you free access to images digitized from the New York Public Library's collection.  You can find some really neat prints from historical maps, to vintage posters, to nature prints, and birds! I love birds so this was my favorite area to search.  It is also neat to see the date the prints are from, I love the old ones!


I found these bird prints and knew they were the ones!  It was a very easy project.  Once I found the prints I wanted, I copied and pasted them to a Word document.  From there I enlarged them and printed them out.  (this I also learned from Sarah's blog) I used some antique looking stationary I already had which gave the prints an even more vintage feel.  You can also use card stock or just regular printer paper. Then I took the backing off my pictures and popped out the old pictures and put the new ones in.  I used the same matting.

I thought the bird prints looked fine in the existing black frames.  But after a few weeks I decided to switch them up abit more.  In comes my favorite spray paint!  :)

I spray painted the frames blue and sanded them to show some of the black through.  NOW they are done!  

In the past I would have went shopping and bought new pictures.  (which there is nothing wrong with doing!)  I do think it is pretty neat re using things I already have.  It saves money of course and it makes it much more special.  I like knowing that it is a one of a kind and I did it myself! :) 

**I can't end my post without giving a shout out to my wonderfully talented sister in law Lia.  I have mentioned my sisters on my last post and talked about all my decorating with my sister Kim.  I totally forgot to mention Lia who has been my phone decorating buddy for more years than I can count.  We live many states away from each other, but always have a hand in what the other is decorating!  I can't wait to share some her amazing projects!  :)