Wedding Picture Display!

I am always looking for unusual or different ways to display photos in our home. I love having the place filled with pictures that bring back moments in time that meant something to us. Of course being a newlywed, I have a TON of wedding pictures that I want to hang up.

I bet you can't guess where my photo wall inspiration came from.... :)

 

PINTEREST OF COURSE!!!!!

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I thought this was a brilliant idea! And I figured I could do it pretty inexpensively (not that I'm cheap or anything, lol). I went to my favorite store, Michaels, to get started!

I decided that I wanted to do a few things....

1.) Since I'm obsessed with quotes, I decided to paint one wood plaque with chalkboard paint. That way I can change out which quote is on the wall over and over again! - I used the same chalkboard paint that was also on the wine glasses, however, I did mix a new batch because chalkboard paint doesn't really keep well.

This plaque was about $6

2.) The 2nd thing that I wanted to do was mix and match sizes of plaques and pictures. I looked through my wedding pics and decided on 10 shots that I wanted to include. I ended up doing 3 - 8x10 and 3 - 5x7 and 4- 4x6 pictures.



Here are my 4x6 plaques and my paints before I got started! I decided on 4 different colors: A terracotta pinkish color to go with the peach chalkboard, a taupe (because I love my neutrals), a brown to add depth and a nice metallic gold because that was our main wedding color. I picked up these small bottles of acrylic paint at Michaels for around $1 each and I have over half of each bottle left over.

 

Here are the 8x10s during the paint process. Michael's was actually out of these plaques for a few weeks so I ended up ordering them from Hobby Lobby.com. All of the picture plaques ranged from $1 to $3.

As you can see, I simply used a paper plate for the paints, it worked very well, the acrylic paint doesn't run at all! One tip I will provide is to go to Menards or Lowes and buy good paint brushes, I can be kind of lazy (shocker!), especially in the middle of a project and I'm also pretty cheap (i know, another shocker!), so I bought $1 brushes at Michaels and they were really difficult to use, the bristles kept getting stuck in the paint on the plaques..... You really do get what you pay for sometimes :).

After your plaques are painted and dry (I did two coats of paint!), you're ready to attach your pictures! This project was also my first time using Mod Podge! If you don't know what that is, it stands for Modern Decoupage. There are millions of recipes on line educating on how to make mod podge at home (elmer's glue and water, basically). I thought it best to use the real deal on this project, since it's our wedding photos and all! Mod Podge comes in many formulas, I used the gloss finish but there is also matte, glitter, etc.

First, I brushed (using a foam brush) the mod podge on the back of the photo and placed it on the plaque. Then I painted it all over on top. This gives the picture that glossy shine and also seals your edges to the plaque so that they don't lift. As you can see, mod podge goes on looking a bit like glue but have no fear, it dries perfectly clear and glossy! No brush marks either!

Here are my plaques hanging out while drying!


And of course, the finished project up on the wall:

It took a while to get the placement down but I love it! Big thanks to my friend Cryss (who is also the one who keeps my hair looking fab!) for his help with the arrangement, you're a genius!  Right now the quote plaque says "my whole heart for my whole life," but I look forward to changing it often!


All photos are courtesy of our wedding photographers, Vienna Glenn Photography and Emily Dennis Photography! Amazing women!

Hope you enjoyed this craft!

Have a great day!