How'd She Do That?: Creating Your own framed wall art for your miniature house

The Dura Craft farmhouse project began two years ago, and it has been a long road to get it put together. Now I am working on a couple of things: the chimney--a night mare of a project that I will share in another post--and the home decor. I have searched Etsy and the all of the online catalogues for unique and cool stuff to decorate the houses that I have worked on, but I found that it was so much more fun and satisfying to make my own wall art. I'd like to share my projects with you.

These were my first attempts at miniaturizing my photographs for the my first real build, the Ballet Studio. My granddaughters were taking ballet lessons and were so adorable in their tutus that I had to use them. Lucy in the yellow and Elinore in the white. Lucy's frame came from Hobby Lobby and the Ellie's phots (pink) was in the bargain bin at Michale's. Cute as they were as little ballerinas, they are not 9 and 11 and riding horses.

I also honored my life long friendship with a dear friend. Our mothers often dressed us the same, making matching outfits and in this photo were are dressed for Easter. The frame another craft store charm perfect for a frame. Me on the left.

                       

I honored my grandparents, too. On the left is my great grandmother Stella on my mother's side and on the right my father's parents, Harry and Abby on a wedding trip. No they did not honeymoon in Paris. I am not sure exactly where they are, a bridge somewhere in Kansas.

And my mother.

I have even transferred pictures to fabric for accent pillows. This is favorite.

Since the Bellingham is a restored Texas farmhouse, I needed cows--Texas cows. Luckily, I know some cows in Texas who gladly let me photos graph them. The black and white is Butter Cup, a Corientes (originally known as a Mexican wild cow), easily mistaken for a long horn.

This is the original photo. There's Butter Cup to the far left, the brown and white cow.

And this is the farmed photo that measure 2.5x3" in a beautiful gold frame from Hobby Lobby

More Hobby Lobby frames that I used model car paint to paint them gold. They go in the bedroom. These photos have been scaled to 1.5" to fit the 1" opening in the frame.

So. How did I do that, you might be asking.

I used an app on my iPad called Waterlogue to turn original photograph of the cows t into a watercolor print. This is a really fun, free app. Or at least it was free when I downloaded it.

All of the photos have to be edited and reduced to the scale that you are wanting. My projects are are all 1":12".  While there are fancy photo editors that do all kinds of things, I discovered that Microsoft Word has pretty cool photo editing tools. 

 Step by Step

First, I use Word 2011 for Mac to create my miniature art work. I would imagine that any PC with Windows, Word has the same tools that you can use. Check it out.

Next, I import the images into the a new Word document. When they arrive on the page, they will be their original size. You may want to use a photo editor (I use Apple Photos), to edit and crop your photo. Still it may be 8x10 or fill the page.

Double click on the image to edit it in Word. In the upper right hand corner you will see the box where you can enter the size in inches that you want your image. So, if the inside of the frame measure 2" then try to make your height 2.4 or 2.5. I only enter the height and let the program size the width. There are other options in word to edit your photo, so play around. 

Note: the photo editing tools do not appear in the tool bar until you click on the photo. So sized then decided what else you want to do to the photo.  

With your photo ready to print, print on regular print paper until you have it sized for your frame, leaving enough of an edge to adhere the photo to the back side of the frame. When you are ready to print your final copy, you can use computer paper, but I use photographic paper, either glossy or mat. Yes, it is more expensive, but your supply will last a long time and you will get better quality prints. Wait until you have serval images to print and print them on one sheet. 

The owl was printed on cheap muslin fabric. There are really good instructions on Pinterest on how to print on fabric by ironing your fabric to the wax side of butcher paper. Works really well. Cut the butcher paper 8x10 and the same with the fabric and then experiment with your printer. Some suggest using the commercial photo print fabric that isn't so hard on the printer. But I like the aged look of the muslin. It is tricky and again you will want to print several images on one page to be more economical. 

I suppose you have to have some computer skills, but you can teach yourself by just playing around. I will say that I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to do things, so it is really time consuming to create your own art, but so worth it. I hope you try.

Thanks so much for taking time read this long post. I hope you learned something.