Cheap DIY Wall Art

As promised, here is some cheap DIY wall art that I whipped up a few weeks ago during an especially crafty martha moment (I also made the coffee filter wreath and updated my hurricanes in the same week).  I was inspired to do this after I saw some extra fabric lying on the floor in my living room.  The colors were perfect for my dining room plus I already had some white frames lying around the house.  It took me a few days to get the initiative to tackle the project, but once I got started, it only took me about 10 minutes to have them up on the wall.

To start, I gathered the following items:

Picture frames (I had a set of 3 from Target but I only needed 2 for this purpose)
Fabric (extra scraps I had lying around) 
Scotch tape
Scissors

This really couldn't be easier.  I simply removed the existing picture from the frame, cut a piece of fabric larger than the mat opening (in this case, I chose the grayish-purple fabric for the background, which is leftover from making bench cushions for the kitchen...to be blogged about later....).  Then, I cut strips of the white fabric (which was leftover from hemming my Ikea dining room curtains) and placed them in different patterns in the frame until something looked good.  The final placement looks almost like a sail or a flag.  It is simple, but I like it.  I actually repeated the pattern in the next frame, but used more strips to change it up a little bit.  No rocket science here, just playing around until it looked decent.  Then, to secure the fabric, I just used scotch tape on each corner and sealed up the frame. 

In hindsight, I probably should have ironed the fabric before I inserted it in the frames, but I was a little too lazy for that.  Let's just say that it gives it a "rustic" feel.......

Luckily these frames already had ribbon attached to them for hanging, but if they didn't it would be easy enough to cut two pieces and tie them together in a bow at the top for some added dimension and depth on your wall. 

And finally, I had B help me measure and hang the frames on either side of the dining room windows.  I measured from the edge of the drapes to the wall (rather than from the window to the wall, since the drapes cover a few inches of the wall).

And here they are.....



It looks fairly plain, but since we have a pretty large Monet print on the left wall, I thought it would be nice to balance it out with something simple and elegant. 

Side note: now that I'm looking at the picture, it seems like they are a little too high on the wall.  What do you think???


P.S.  I'm linking up to The DIY Show-Off's 2010 DIY Recap Party, go check it out: