I have been working on this project off and on for years. So now I am very happy and excited to share the results with you :) Do you understand that feeling that I am having right now???
A litle background about this project...I started taking photos on Father's Day each year of our son Joe's hand along with Tom's (my husband). Then Adam was born and I kept taking photos. I just knew I would like having these pictures some day, but never had a plan for them.
And years before we had children, we had a very old house that had the built-in hutch that separated the living and dining room. Tom totally gutted that house and he had the brilliant idea of saving the two doors from the hutch. Those doors went through a lot of moves. Keep in mind that they are very fragile. Our house even flooded one year and we were ready to pitch them. But my Mom was helping us clean up the mess and said "I will just take these and keep them for you. Some day you will want them..." She was such a smart lady!!
So take a look at what I did and I will explain more...one door for Adam...
...the full view of the wall...
...and one door for Joe. I wanted to keep the rustic, vintage look of the doors. I did not even try to cover up the bare wood where the hinges once were. I do plan to hunt down some glass knobs so I can put one on each door.
I knew I wanted to do a collage of photos and I also wanted the glass to show, but I wasn't sure how to put it all together. My friend Lisa gave me the idea to use some wording on the glass.
This family art is a vinyl piece from Stampin' Up! It is available in black or chocolate. I used the black. It measures 18" x 13." After working with the delicate glass in the hutch doors, I knew I wanted to put this on a piece of glass (rather than just putting it on the painted wall). I had a piece of glass cut to the size I needed at a local glass shop. They also drilled holes in the glass so I could hang it. The neat thing about the FAMILY saying is that it comes with all sorts of numbers...so you can put the year your family was established. Ours is 1992.
Now for some close up photos and more explanation. These frames were filthy from the flood. They still had the muck on them (the flood was in 1993!!) I found them in my parents' garage about 6 years ago and had totally forgotten about them. So I started thinking about ways to use them. Then I remembered all the "hand" photos that I have been taking. So the planning began...how can I use them???
In order to make it all work, I had another piece of glass cut to put behind the original glass. That way I could sandwich the photos in between the glass and make a permanent piece of art to last forever! I did mount each photo on vanilla colored cardstock and then used adhesive behind the cardstock. That way the photos are stuck to the second layer of glass.
Can you guess how many times I cleaned the glass? There were fingerprints on it from cleaning...and with measuring and re-measuring and changing my mind...
Getting the diamond shape photo in the right place was the trickiest job...but it all worked out. Then in order to hang these fragile pieces I wanted to make sure that we got the nails in the studs. For that glass piece I had the holes drilled exactly 16" apart. Perfect match for studs!!
I will now have to add something to this wall but it can stay like this for a long time. I love it and am sooooooooooo happy with it! I can envision a big piece of something hanging on the barn red wall. If you haven't guessed, this is the stairway to our basement.
Have a great day! Lori :)
