DIY Chicken Wire Bulletin Board

I have pictures of my family and friends all over my apartment. I love taking pictures, and I love having them up to look at every day. My brother currently lives in Spain, and lot of my friends live in other cities and states, so seeing their faces in pictures every day makes everyone seem a {little} less farther away.

I found this big white frame in the attic at my parents' house. I went to Lowe's and purchased some chicken wire. The smallest roll of chicken wire I found was about 4ft x 10 ft. Let's just say I have enough left over to make an actual chicken pen. 

I wish I had more pictures for the step by step, but hopefully these finished-product pictures are explanatory enough. 

I laid the chicken wire over the frame and cut it about one inch bigger than the frame. I then nailed half-inch nails every 3-4 inches along the inside of the frame. If one of the pieces of chicken wire was near the nails, I twisted it around the nail. The other pieces of chicken wire are not attached to any nails, they just stay in place.

That's it really!

Jewelry Organization Display

For me, if jewelry is out of sight, it's out of mind. I decided to make my own jewelry display from some wooden picture frames. Now, it's not only easy to find my jewelry, I also have a pretty wall decoration! It's easier than you might think. Here's what I did: 

I found 3 open frames at Hobby Lobby. Helpful hint, they have to be real wood or the hooks won't screw into them. Here's a link for the frames. Wait for them to be 50% off (I have found that this happens every other week), or use a "40% off one item" coupon from your smart phone. I used two 8x10, and one 11x14. I painted them antique white using acrylic paint. 

For the earring holder, I used a plastic canvas sheet found in the knitting section of Hobby Lobby. When I was wandering through the isles (I hardly ever go down the knitting isle), I found these and had a lightbulb moment! It makes the PERFECT earring holder. I have seen similar earring holders made with chicken wire, burlap, and other fabric, but seriously this is the best option. Its more sturdy than fabric. If the page is longer than your frame, it's super easy to cut to size with regular scissors. And did I mention it costs 37 cents!! Here's the link for that. You're welcome, everyone. :)

For the bracelets and necklaces, I used little tiny hooks that I screwed into the wood by hand. These just cost a couple of dollars. Here's a link for similar hooks. 

Finished product:

I love it! And it really was an easy project!

A Pocketful of Sweet Dreams

Well I noticed that apartments usually have windows along one whole wall... and ZERO windows on all the other walls. That leaves a lot of big blank (white!) walls. I'm constantly attempting to find cost-effective ways to decorate my big blank walls. Unfortunately, a lot of wall decorations that take up a lot of space are also very expensive. I figured that a wall collage would be a perfect way to take up some space, while not spending toooo much money.

This is result of the 2 hours I spent daydreaming at Hobby Lobby... For some reason when I shop there, the time just flies by. It's my happy place. 

These frames can be purchased for $2.99 each here. They are real wood too. What a great deal! I purchased some scrap book paper in coordinating prints, and some big stickers with sweet phrases. 

I kind of just guessed on the size when I cut the first piece of scrap book paper to fit in the frame. I then traced that first piece onto the other 3 pages and cut them all out. 

The "Love" design is actually part of the top right damask scrapbook paper, so I used 2 sheets to make each of those. The back of that paper is the red polka-dot paper on the top left. Don't forget to look on the back of the papers when you're at the store! They usually coordinate and would be perfect for projects like this.

Here's the finished product! That's a pretty big space on the wall that used to be so bare. I really like how it turned out. I removed the glass because I didn't like the glare from my ceiling light (apartment lighting struggles...). 

This one is my very favorite :) What a sweet phrase! I love having encouraging phrases around my apartment. I really believe it makes a difference to be physically surrounded by encouraging, positive, phrases.