{You are my Sunshine} Gallery Wall

I started working on this wall near the end of September.  It has taken me until now to finish up all the little details with it, and fill in the gaps.  I am so excited to share it with you.

 

This wall is what I see just before I turn to go into my bedroom.  It makes me happy.  It was also the perfect place for something like this.

When putting this wall together, I needed to keep it inexpensive.

See that sweet 3 month old Tess.  Sweet Sweet reminders.

I gathered frames from my attic, and then a few from a local thrift shop.  I cleaned them all up good, and gave them a little spray with my favorite tool; spray paint.

I used: rust oleum American accents Honey(yellow) and Krylon gray

Once I had that all figured out, I needed to find pictures to fill the frames.  I knew I wanted to use some older pictures.  I went through my stash and pulled out a few of my favorites.

Isn’t Stella the cutest 5 year old?

I also grabbed a couple of my favorite prints from around the house and added them to this wall.  I have a couple that are mounted on a 12x12 wood square to make them stand out from the wall.

They are home to my favorite print about a lesson learned with Isaac, and Jex’s baptism.

I also knew that I wanted a few of the frames to have some words in them.  That is when I made these two printables.

This printable is for baby Ruby.  It hangs on my wall to remind me, of how precious we all are.

I made this for me kids, because I say this to them all the time.  Tess even says it back now.

I had this one printed through a lab into an 11x14, and then I put it in this frame. You can also print them, by going here.

This adorable round frame was one that I had one of my kids silhouettes in.  The glass broke so I decided to use it here.  I knew it had to have an owl in it.  Luckily my sweet friend Marji is awesome at cutting vinyl.  Thanks Marji.

This little space at the top was so hard for me.  It is awkward.  I hate that I have this round fire alarm hanging out in my gallery wall, but I decided that I didn’t want to burn in a fire either.  So I am rolling with it.  Marji cut this est. 1999 vinyl for me to fit perfectly in this awkward space. 

Now… to the final piece.  The part that holds this wall together.  The word art in the middle, “You are my Sunshine.”  Isn’t it awesome?  I originally saw it here and had to duplicate.

I went out to my local hardware store and bought this piece of wood.  It was already cut square like this, and was the perfect width.  I believe I paid $6 for it.  When I got it home, I spray painted it the same yellow.

Marji helped me cut out the words on her silouhette.  I picked the fonts and the sizes, and then we let the machine do the rest.  We cut them out of contact paper because I didn’t want to waste vinyl that I wasn’t going to use.  Once they were cut out, I used the opposite part of the words as a pattern.  I traced it on my wood.  I wanted the letters to be painted and not  vinyl lettering. I used the vinyl for my pattern only.

Once I had it all traced, I used a cream color acrylic paint to hand paint the letters.  When I was finished, I used a little sandpaper to rough it all up.

I absolutely love how it all came together.  The yellow and the gray together are the perfect combination.

It also brings a little sunshine into my day as I am reminded of those little rays in my life.

I think it is important to fill our home with the things that make us happy, make us smile, and help us remember our blessings.