life is beauty full.

One of my goals for the year is to make meaningful art for my house. I want to be surrounded with things that I love, things that I created or that have special meaning for me. I have so many ideas - my things to make Pinterest board has more pins than any other. Here is the first of hopefully many projects:

It was inspired (ok copied) from this:

[Source: Flower Patch Farmgirl]

I used a 6-foot piece of 1x6 pine, cut into 4 equal parts, for the panels, and a 4-foot piece of 1x2 pine, cut into 2 equal pieces, as braces on the back to attach everything together. The wood cost less than $8 for both pieces. I stained them using the same dark walnut stain that I used for my nightstand (and there is still a ton left!).

I used a couple sheets of scrapbook paper that looked kind of like a quilt - I just cut it into smaller pieces and added it randomly to one of the panels. The stencils cost less than $4, and I know I'll be able to use them again. I also needed to buy Modge Podge (to add the paper to one of the panels) and black and white craft paint. Altogether I spent less than $20, with more than half of that on supplies that can be used again.

I'm not sure yet where I'm going to hang this, but I love the way it turned out - even better than I pictured!

Next up...I'm building a desk. Definitely my biggest project to date! Hopefully I'll have it at least built by the weekend, with just finishing left to do next week.