After furniture got juggled around in the living room, we were left with a woeful-looking blank* space on a wall:
But after combining scrapbook paper with a stencil pattern, magic happens, and this is now on the wall:
About a year ago, I shared a scrapbook paper wall art DIY project where I mounted papers on a grid of nine 12″ x 12″ wood pieces. It’s hanging in my office:
It’s an easy way to fill a bigger space with color and pattern. So I decided to do a similar scrapbook paper DIY craft project for our living room’s blank wall.
Here are supplies to do this project:
- Bigger frame with a smooth firm surface inside it, or a large piece of wood
- Scrapbook papers
- Cutter/scissors to trim papers to size
- Mod Podge and brush
- Brayer
- Stencil
- Stencil brush
- Paint
- Bowl or lid for paint
- Paper towel
Continue reading for the full how-to-do-it directions, plus photos showing you each step of the way …
I already had all supplies in the house, and didn’t need to buy anything for this project.
In storage I had 32″ x 32″ framed art that I bought years ago at HomeGoods on sale for 1/3 the original price because I liked the frame:
When you see a good sale, if you like the frame, it can be a bargain way to get a big frame — you can always replace the art. This piece might be MDF, I believe, not a canvas, so the surface is smooth for however I wanted to repurpose it.
My mom and I sifted through a stack of scrapbook papers during Thanksgiving, glancing around the living room and saying “yay” or “yuck” to find the right mix of papers and colors. I was hoping our consumption of a 3-foot tall bottle of Riesling wouldn’t cloud our judgment! Two months since the 3-foot tall bottle of wine, I think our choices were okay. We chose nine papers for a 3 x 3 grid:
Because the “canvas” part of the frame is about 29″ x 29″, I cut the papers to 10″ x 10″ so they would overlap a bit. I now wish I had butted the edges of papers against each other instead of overlapping — once the papers were stenciled with metallic paint, the ridges show and I’m not a fan of that.
First — and I did not do this! — make sure the hanging fixtures on the back of your frame are at the top before you start gluing paper and stenciling! When I went to hang up my frame, the hanging fixtures were on the left side. Ha. Ha ha! I took it to the framers at Hobby Lobby to move the fixtures and reattach them securely; my piece is heavy.
To start, I decoupaged the papers onto the “canvas” with matte Mod Podge.
Then I brushed a layer of matte Mod Podge on top of the papers. This step makes it easy to clean up paint smudges later while stenciling.
I struggled with wrinkling of lighter-weight scrapbook papers:
Even though I spread Mod Podge evenly, used a brayer and smoothed with my hands, wrinkles still happened. I decided to see how the project unfolds — maybe they’ll become a design element instead of looking like a mistake.
To add another layer of pattern, I painted a metallic bronze pattern over the papers with the Small Moroccan Arches stencil from Royal Design Studio:
How to stencil deserves entire posts of its own, so this post isn’t about sharing those techniques, but you can find plenty of links at this How to Stencil Pinterest Board.
As you can see, the paper colors and patterns are more quiet now, peeking out from behind the bronze painted pattern:
This was a super easy project, and it adds an exotic touch to a corner of our living room:
The two smaller frames on the right were also a DIY shared here — I used cheap black plastic frames and made them look like rusty metal. All together, this is a creative corner of our home.
While doing final edits, Sinead O’Connor’s “Last Day of Our Acquaintance” came up on my iPhone (love her voice), and it was perfect, this is the last day of my acquaintance with a blank wall that had to go.
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This project shared at:
504 Main | Common Ground | Craft-O-Maniac | DIY Home Sweet Home | DIY Show Off | Flamingo Toes | Funky Junk Interiors | Home Stories A to Z | I Gotta Create! | I Heart Nap Time | Ladybird Ln Weekend Show Off | Mad in Crafts | Mom on Timeout | Nifty Thrifty Things | No Minimalist Here | Project Inspire | REDOUX | Savvy Southern Style | Skip to My Lou | Southern Lovely | Strut Your Stuff Saturday | The 36th Avenue | The Charm of Home | The Crafty Blog Stalker | The Shabby Creek Cottage | The Shabby Nest
I’m not really familiar with scrapbook paper. Where do you get that?
Great question! I saved the strips with manufacturer names and intended to share sources because I do get this question! Scrapbook paper can be found in hobby/craft stores like Michaels, Joann, Hobby Lobby, and online at websites like scrapbook.com. It’s usually 12″ x 12″ paper (or smaller) with printed patterns or solid colors. You can get single pieces of scrapbook paper, and you can also buy booklets of coordinated paper. There are thousands of papers and patterns to choose from! Here are manufacturers of some papers in this project: 7 Gypsies, Creative Imaginations, Cosmo Cricket, Little Yellow Bicycle and Basic Grey. Some papers are about 4 years old and the exact patterns might not be available anymore. Hope this helps!
Also the paint used for stencils is Lumiere metallic acrylic paint, 565 Metallic Bronze color.
absolutely stunning !! i can see an entire wall done like that too. I love the one with the writing and it ‘s turquoisy color…..so delicious !!
Thank you Sylvie, that’s quite a compliment coming from you! :) I agree, I love the turquoise with the bronze over it the best. I’ll soon be painting a closet a dark turquoise color and that’s making me think … hmmmm … possibilities!
Hi and thank you for leaving a comment on my blog! So amazing and crafty blog you have. You’re pretty awsome with those stencils!!! Have a wonderful day :-)
Thanks so much! And thanks for following along here, hope to deliver more awesome DIYs! :)
Awesome! I love it :0) I wish I had that much talent! I’m your newest follower and would love if you could come check out my blog too :0)
The Three Whiskateers
http://thethreewhiskateers.blogspot.com/
Thank you so much & thanks for following! I love the DIYs for your whiskateers – I have two who often supervise (and sometimes don’t approve) my projects. You have some great DIY ideas that should please my “whiskery supervisors”!
What a great one of a kind piece of art!!!
Love it – so creative – thanks for sharing!
Hugs,
Thank you Suzan! And oh my gosh, your blog is so funny, great sparkling writing. Anthony Bourdain — great choice! :) And the door full of snow in Newfoundland, what if you had a dog standing there that had to … go? Oh boy …
Wow! That is gorgeous! I usually hate stenciling since my paint always smears…good to know about Mod Podging first. Thanks for the tip!
Audra, thank you! I can be a messy painter and the easy cleaning of the smears with Mod Podge was a nice surprise and now I realize, really necessary to have when you’re painting on paper. Ha ha re: your blog post, I hope your husband is surprised on Valentine’s Day – that’s a great project idea for scrapbook paper!
Beautiful job! Great tutorial. What a great focal point!
Thank you so much Roeshel! I hope to do more projects soon to show off at DIYShowOff …
It is a beautiful art piece! Thank you for joining the Open House party.
Thanks Sherry, I’ll be making more projects soon to share at your Open House parties. Thank you for hosting them!
Thank you so much for linking your FB to my party otherwise I wouldn’t have found this great project. Would you be interested in being a guest on my blog and sharing this?
Thank you for hosting an FB link party – great idea! Absolutely, I’d be happy to share the project on your blog. I’ll visit your blog and email you through there! Deb
Wow….. So creative,…. Thanks for sharing this !!!!!
I love your creativity on this piece! it look awesome and Yayyyy to no more sad walls!
Thank you Sarah! I’m glad you commented so I found your blog – you have the coolest style. I love the pallet table you made. All the best in your new home!
Beautiful. I’m Indian and my husband and I are moving into our new apartment in Nashville soon, so I was looking for (affordable) inspiration. Your blog is lovely.
Hi, thank you very much for the compliment about the blog, I’m glad you enjoy it! And yes, this is very affordable and fun to do. Unique too! I love it on our wall.