My 3 Monsters: Scrappy Photo Frame Garland

I am super excited to be a part of Kristen Duke's Decorating with Pictures series this year on her blog Capturing Joy! I have never been really good at decorating my home with photographs, but Kristen's blog has really inspired me over the past year or so to introduce more family photos into our decor. {And to be a little braver about getting into those photos myself rather than hiding behind the camera.}

Today I'm sharing a fun Scrappy Photo Frame Garland that I made to embellish my chicken wire kitchen cabinets. It would also be a pretty cool addition to a mantle or any wall in your home. I bought these little unfinished wood frames over a year ago and they have just been sitting in my craft closet waiting for me to decide what they were going to become. I finally got the stroke of inspiration I needed a few weeks ago as I was looking at some cute family photos we had taken at the Gilbert Temple open house. I had originally thought I would print the photos out and just clip them to the chicken wire with mini clothes pins, but these little frames are just too perfect!

I began by painting the frames with my favorite turquoise spray paint {Valspar's La Fonda Mirage in flat finish}. The frames fit wallet sized prints, so while the paint was drying I had my photos printed. Once the paint was good and dry {after I messed it up on one frame and had to sand and repaint} I attached screw eyes on both of the side edges on each frame. Drill a tiny pilot hole to keep the wood from splitting as you insert the screw eye.

Attach the frames together by tying a piece of sturdy string through the screw eyes as shown above. You'll be making a "train" of picture frames, in effect. Mine are about 4 inches apart between frames. It doesn't really matter what you use to tie them together because it's not going to show on the finished garland. I had a roll of jute twine handy so that's what I used.

Next, tear a bunch of fabric strips about 1-inch wide from coordinating fabrics then cut the strips into approximately 6-inch lengths. They don't have to be perfect -- I pretty much just eyeballed it. Tie the strips of fabric onto the twine in between the frames. I found it easiest to start from the center and tie one fabric strip around the knot, then work out in each direction until you reach the screw eye on each end. You can pack the scrap strips in there as loose or as tight as you like. I think I used 20-25 strips between each frame and about 10 more on each end.

For the ends of the garland, I tied a loop of twine through the screw eye and then tied a few fabric scraps onto that. The twine loop will be what you use to hang the garland when it is finished. After I finished my garland I realized that I HATED the color combination, so I went back and took off all the pink and red scraps and replaced them with more of the white and black polka dot strips. Sometimes that happens. No big. Just roll with it!

Insert the pictures into the frames. At this point, you could be finished and hang your garland. I wanted to add labels to mine, so I picked up these cute metal book plates in the scrapbooking section at Michael's. Because they're made for paper, not wood, I hot glued them in place under my pictures. I used colorful washi tape to make inserts that I could write the labels on -- just a brief description of the time and place. It will be really easy to swap out pictures and labels as we get new pictures that we want to display!

To hang the garland, I used simple S-hooks that I picked up at the hardware store. I just put one end of the hook through the twine loop at each end of the garland and the other end of the hook onto the chicken wire. It held it nice and secure even with the weight of the frames. I also put an S-hook in the center because I liked the way it looked.

Because the pictures are small, it invites people into our home to get a closer look. A friend of mine saw it from the front door as we were chatting and had to come on in to see the pictures. I love that! It's a bright, cheerful reminder of some of the fun things we've done together. Isn't that the best way to decorate after all?!

Thanks, Kristen, for inviting me to be a part of your fun series! If you want some more fabulous inspiration to use photos in your home, check out the whole series here: