Colorful Framed Gallery Wall for Mother’s Day {with Martha Stewart Crafts}

Hey friends! Mother’s Day is coming up soon! So I am excited to be a part of a campaign with Blueprint Social to share some ideas for Mother’s Day using Martha Stewart Crafts products by Plaid. I like to give my mom personalized gifts and thought a colorful and whimsical framed gallery wall featuring her adorable grandchildren would be just the ticket to make her smile! I’ll tell you more about it . . .

For this project I was sent a big box of Martha Stewart Crafts supplies to use—I honestly couldn’t believe the jackpot of goodies that was delivered to my door! Opening that box was like Christmas morning, or like Mary Poppin’s bag where you reach in and good things keep on coming out! 🙂

The motherlode of crafting delight! Happy early Mother’s Day to ME, I say! 🙂

 There were stencils, brushes of all shapes and sizes, a multipurpose heat tool, a ton of pretty paint in satin and pearl and metallic finishes, a spray paint kit, a mini paint roller. . .and more. Once I unloaded all of my loot, I racked my brain to come up with ideas that would make my mama (and Martha!) happy. I knew I wanted to create something using pictures of the grandkids, because you can’t go wrong with that! All of us Chicks like to use photos in our projects! Inspired by a project done by Becky Higgins (see her framed gallery HERE), I decided it would be fun to update my mom’s photo gallery wall with bright colors, updated pictures, a fun piece of artwork/quote, and frame it all up with a gigantic frame.

I’ll show you how I did the different parts: the large outer frame, the “Happy” canvas, the yellow and orange bracket frame, and the mounted 8×10 photos. Buckle up, it’s a doozy of a post! 🙂

Painted and Glazed Outer Frame

Supplies for frame:

Large frame

Sanding block or sandpaper

Martha Stewart Spray Paint Kit

Martha Stewart Crafts Paint in a variety of colors

Tinted Glaze

Wipes

Ribbon

I found this awesome 30×40 (HUGE) frame for only $15 at a local thrift store. I love looking for cool frames at thrift stores—I’ll admit, I’m a bit of a frame hoarder! I knew this big frame would be the perfect thing to surround the entire gallery, especially with some fresh paint and glaze. If you don’t have a large enough frame you can always make a customized one using molding or trim from the hardware store.

Check out the gold trim and the black velvet, ooh la la! This frame needed some TLC for sure. First I cleaned and sanded it, then I primed the entire frame with a spray primer and let it dry. Then I sprayed it with a few coats of paint using the Martha Stewart Spray Paint Kit. (I was really eager to try this product out since I love spray painting things!)

The spray paint kit is so cool because you can use any color of the craft paint you want. You attach the sprayer to a bottle with a mixture of equal amounts of gloss spray medium and the acrylic paint. I was careful to follow the directions exactly, and I was happy with the results after a few coats of paint. I am in love with this beautiful SURF satin paint color!

This frame had a lot of intricate details that I wanted to bring out, so I glazed it. It’s a really simple technique that makes a huge difference.

You can find glaze medium at Home Depot or Lowe’s. I tinted mine a dark brown. Apply the glaze with a brush onto the frame, making sure to get into all of the grooves and nooks and crevices.

Then you can use wet wipes to wipe off the glaze. It will stay in the detailed parts and make them pop. You can wipe most of it off, or leave as much of the glaze on as you want. I love it.

To finish off the frame and cover up the yucky velvet part I just covered it with white grosgrain ribbon, using small dots of hot glue on the corners to hold it down.

“You make me so very HAPPY” canvas

Next I’ll show you how I created a happy quote canvas that I totally love (and kinda want to keep for myself!).

Supplies to make canvas:

Blank Canvas (mine was 12×16 in)

Martha Stewart Crafts Paint in a variety of colors

Martha Stewart Crafts Mini Paint Roller

Martha Stewart Crafts Sea Sponge

Martha Stewart Crafts Foam Pouncer Tops & Stencil Brush

Martha Stewart Crafts Stencils (Birds and Berries)

Vinyl or Martha Stewart Crafts Stencil Film

First of all I decided on my quote, “you make me so very happy”. My mom adores her grandkids and they bring her so much joy, so I thought this idea would be perfect! You could do anything you want, that’s the fun thing about this project. I created it using my Silhouette software and cut the quote in vinyl with the Silhouette Cameo. I placed it on the blank canvas so the words would stay white. You could also use the Martha Stewart Crafts Stencil Film to make any stencil design you want.

Next I used the mini paint roller to give the canvas a coat of paint. I used AQUARIUM Pearl paint for this, and it’s so shiny and pretty. I made sure to cover up the vinyl words as well.

Once the entire canvas was covered I decided to add a little bit more dimension by using a sea sponge to give it more texture. I used a small amount of paint on the sponge and dabbed it all over the canvas until I was happy.

Before the paint completely dried I peeled off the vinyl words–yay, it worked! Then once it was all dry I added the “HAPPY” vinyl to the canvas.

I used the foam pouncers on this part. They are so cool because you just stick them right onto the paint bottles and get right to work! They worked really well and then were a cinch to clean up.

YUMMY HAPPY COLORS! They honestly put me in a good mood. I have to say, I am super impressed with this paint line–it is one paint that works on all kinds of surfaces, and the colors are so dreamy. It worked awesomely on canvas, the wood frame, and even plastic. I’m a fan!

The key to getting clean, crisp lines when stenciling is to make sure you have a strong seal along the edges of the letters so that paint doesn’t seep under the stencil. Also, don’t glob the paint onto the stencil—use it somewhat sparingly and do multiple coats.

Oh, and to finish off the canvas I added a little birdie on a branch using the Birds and Berries stencil from Martha Stewart Crafts. My mom likes birds. 😉 It was pretty painless—I haven’t used very many stencils in my life so I was a tiny bit nervous it would be a total craft fail but it turned out just fine! 🙂

Actually, I really love it.

Then I added a mini pennant (using canvas fabric cut into triangles and painted with the Martha Stewart Crafts paint) hung with yellow baker’s twine on top of the whole thing and it made me so very happy.

Painted Bracket Frame

So I’ll let you in on a little secret—this isn’t actually a frame! It’s a tray I found at Hobby Lobby for $5! It was a burgundy color originally.

I traced the bracket shape with some wax paper, so I could fit the photo into the “frame”. Then primed the tray with spray primer. I used a flat brush from Martha Stewart Crafts to paint the outer edges–in JONQUIL satin and TIGER LILY pearl paints. Once dry I stuck the photo inside using Mod Podge. I am using 3M Command Strips to hang this on the wall.

Mounted 8×10 Photos

To make the 8×10 photos stand out I mounted them onto plain 8×10 canvases (2 for $3.99 at Hobby Lobby) using spray adhesive. Trim any overhanging edges and you are done! To protect the photos you can add some Mod Podge on top or a clear coat spray.

Whew! You made it through! HUGE THANKS to Blueprint Social and to Martha Stewart Crafts and Plaid Crafts for letting me participate in this fun campaign! I love this fun & colorful framed gallery wall!

You can find these products and more at your local Michaels stores as well as Jo-Ann’s. Here’s where you can find Martha Stewart Crafts & Plaid Crafts online:

Twitter: @plaidcrafts

Facebook: http://facebook.com/InspiredByPlaid

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/plaidcrafts

I wrote this post as part of a paid campaign with Plaid and Blueprint Social. The opinions and projects in this post are my own, as always!

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