Eye Candy

No life-changing DIY today. Just an adaptation of a previous project, and a couple free printables...

We made a quick trip to Ikea the other day and picked up, among other things, a few frames for some artwork I've been wanting to put up.

Do you remember these silhouette ornaments I made for Christmas? When I made those I printed out a larger copy to use as a template to make a classic framed silhouette. I simply laid my printed copy on a piece of black construction paper and held it in place while carefully cutting around the silhouette; then I mounted it on a piece of scrapbook paper that I cut to fit my frame. Much easier than I expected...just make sure you use sharp scissors! (For more instructions on how to make a silhouette, check out the tutorial I followed here.)

I also printed this Minnesota silhouette from Q.A.Design. (She has prints of all 50 states and a number of different countries available as a free download here.) I actually preferred the yellow and navy blue combination of the Iowa print, to the red, white, and blue Minnesota print, so I just downloaded them both and dumped the preferred colors into the Minnesota design using Photoshop. Much easier than packing my bags and moving to Iowa...

Same deal with this lovely design from Blog Milk. The original print was done in black and white (download it here), but since I was planning to put it in Abe's room I added a bit of color to the numbers before printing it off. I trimmed the print to fit an 8x10 frame but I probably should have resized it too. The frame crops off a tiny bit at the top and bottom.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, when making prints to hang on my walls, I either use Epson Velvet Fine Art Paper or Epson Matte Premium Presetation Paper. The velvet paper is extra heavy and has a nice finish that looks and feels like letterpress. The presentation paper is a coated cardstock that really helps the colors pop, especially when printing line art and graphics.

Does anyone else cover their walls with free artwork? Use everyday tumblers as "wine" glasses? Live in Minnesota? We've gotten 3 inches of rain since last night! How's the weather in your neck of the woods?