Easy Art DIY

In the last post I mentioned how that fresh coat of paint really had me reeling for some art for the spare bedroom. I wanted something fast, easy, and free. So I rememberd that I had some natural coffee filters laying around that didn’t work out on another project and we always have some spare wood in the tool room. All I needed to dig out was some glue. Since I was out of hot glue sticks and just grabbed up some Aleene’s® Original Tacky Glue. I knew it would take longer to set up but it would do just fine.

I simply put some glue on the MDF, spread thin so it would set up fast. I put my finger in the center of the filter and used the other hand to get the filter to fold up around my hand. I then pushed my finger into the glue on the MDF. I repeated this several times for each flower. Since I was using a glue that didn’t dry instantly, I only added about 5 filters at a time to each flower then moved on to another while I waited for the glue to set up. I think I used about 75-100 filters on the whole project and it only took me a total of maybe 2 hours.

Wondering how I hung it?

First I ventured into the messiest tool room in the world…

I found these cool little brackets in this picture hanging kit we got from Harbor Freight ages ago…

Then I realized they didn’t work the way I thought they did so I went back to the box… and pulled out my trusty picture wire.

I made a mark down the back of where I wanted the picture wire to run and pre-drilled two little holes for the screws.

I wrapped the wire around and around the loose screw, screwed it in trapping the wire, then wrapped the wire around itself several times, gave it several staples wrapping the wire through those as well, then banged the staples down with a hammer. I may have also added a few more staples just so I could hit it a few more times…. This is very scientific and I would only use this crazy rigging method on something that you hadn’t paid a lot for… You know, just in case it falls in the middle of the night…

We have crazy plaster on top of sheetrock walls in the original part of the house and if you don’t pre-drill holes in, you end up with a huge and cracked hole. So now, I pre-drill. My favorite way to hang things in our walls are these Hercules hooks or Monkey Hooks from Lowes. They hold a ton of weight and only add a small pin hole to the wall! They’ve got two different sized hooks. I like the small ones the best but this big guy was all I had on hand. I’ve used all the rest!

You just push it right into the hole and as long as you haven’t hit a stud, it’ll go right in and be ready to hang your frame/art/mirror or whatever. Just so you know how amazing these thing are, I’ve got three yes only three holding up our HEAVY pallet spice rack in the kitchen.

A while back we hung a chandelier that my Mom had in her Master Bedroom and was going to yard sale last Spring. I gave it a coat of red spray paint and Brian hung it up for me. I didn’t like the globes so I’ve got to find something to go over the bulbs. I have an idea but haven’t got the stuff on hand to try it out.

That’s all for now!