Clothesline Photo Display

This is one of those projects that I almost feel a little sheepish writing a tutorial for, because it is so very basic, and you can probably guess how I did it by looking at the final picture. But while some projects sit in my mind for a few months of pondering, gathering materials, and working at them a little at a time, other projects come together out of necessity, in a single nap time, with materials scrounged up from around the house and $3.00 at Jo Ann Fabrics. Like this one.

As I stated last week, I have recently moved my craft room into our old office and moved "the office/my husband's stuff" out. However, he kept the bulletin board and pictures that I had in there, so I set out to get myself something similar. So I repossessed a frame from my son's room and got to work.

I'm still trying to make the room a bit more feminine and inspiring, so I got some pretty blue damasque fabric from JoAnn's and go to work. I didn't have any foam board, so I just covered the original art piece that had been in the frame with fabric batting. It was too thin (and sturdy) for staples, so I just hot glued the batting down about every 3 inches, which did the trick.

I cut my fabric about 1 1/2 inches larger than the batting, because I know that I will eventually re-do this board, and wanted to be able to remove the fabric easily while leaving the batting in tact. So I glued down the fabric in a similar fashion, pulling it snugly as I went.

I wanted to be able to change out my photos easily, but I was looking for something slightly different than the typical memo board, so I thought I'd make a little clothesline. I got some cotton twine and hot glued it to the top corners of my frame pulling it pretty tautly. (You may want to try hanging a few pictures from your line and see how low it dips before you glue on the second side. Photos and clips are surprisingly heavy on a little line like this.)

I then popped the fabric-covered board into the frame and tested out a few photos.

I used these tiny little clothespins on my line, which are a little smaller than the pad of your thumb. They are ADORABLE! When I got them I had originally planned on gluing little rosettes or something fun to the top of them for an extra embellishment, but I ended up loving them as is.

Once my photos were up I realized that the pictures that had been printed in "landscape" left enough room on the board for a second row. So I added a second string about halfway down the frame for another row of photos.

I was so happy with how the fabric backing provided a fun "mat" for the photos. It was a great alternative to matting a bunch of the pictures in little frames and grouping them together.

I love it! It was one of those happy projects that is easy, cute, cheap and functional.

I'm linking to these incredible parties here.

Also, I'm sharing my tutorial on Freezer Paper Tote Bags over on Just Another Day in Paradise's Christmas in July party! If you missed it the first time around, click here to see it. Actually, there are tons of great ideas over there, so you should probably visit no matter what, and start thinking about and creating your Christmas gifts now!

See you Wednesday to share my favorite read this summer by far!!