Tuesday inspiration

I don't know about you, but I constantly see things in stores, online, in others' houses, etc. and think, "I love that. I could make that!" Since I can't afford "real" artwork for my walls, I'm always looking for new ideas of things that I could make, for cheap.

A few weeks ago, I stumbled across this paint chip wall art, on the Paper Crave site, and had a EUREKA moment. "I could make that!" The only cost would be the frames, since paint chips are (say it with me)..FREE!!

So, I took a ride to Lowe's and did my best I'm-looking-for-a-really-bright-color-for-my-livingroom-let-me-take-a-sample-of-every-chip-you-have impression, and left with a fun mix of colors. Now, I just needed frames.

Since we sort of live in the...dare I say it..."boonies," there isn't a very grand selection of stores near us to buy things such as picture frames, and with gas prices being what they are, I refuse to take a 20-mile drive to Michael's, who may or may not have what I am looking for anyway. I mean, we're trying to do this on the cheap! And so...I waited. Finally this past weekend, i had my opportunity when I was house/dog-sitting for my friends who live in a more "developed" area, near a Michael's. They had small frames for $5. I wanted to make two of these to hang on the wall as a set, so I went for the small frames. I wanted white, but the white ones were all scratched up so I got dark brown. In hindsight, I should have bought the white ones and found white paint to touch them up with, but c'est la vie.

Ok, enough words. Here's how it went down...

I had to document the names of the colors.
They're so fun.

My favorite is the lightest green one...Elf Shoe.
ELF SHOE! Awesome.

Ta da!

 So I think they turned out pretty nice, but would look much nicer in white frames (and with a picture taken with a flash!). Not too bad for the first go-around. I still have plenty of these paint chips left to make a few more. I'll be making two larger ones with white frames for my room.

The scraps would make pretty cool confetti.

In other news: Amanda and I were perusing Target this weekend and Amanda comes to me with these 80's style purple sunglasses and tells me, "You have to try these on!" And they were awesome. And so she picked out a pair with leopard-print on the sides and now we own super radical shades!