pathetic arrangement at the top of the stairs,

this pathetic attempt at something trying to be cute is failing miserably and has been like this for about two years. no one cares for you, we all walk by you a thousand times a day without even glancing at the mess you are.

well thats about to change. no more haphazard extra photos leaning around just because i dont have a better place to put them. no more super outdated five year old photos making me miss my babies. no more shelves i cant really stand anymore. and no more full drawers that are full of god knows what. time to clean you out and use you for something, well, more useful.

we will let you keep the jars though, no matter what jeff says.

after i’m done with you, you will be a hip, updated, family portrait wall that will include our extended family and maybe a few accessories while im at it.

Update : 06.02.13

The last photo taken of our photo wall before a pipe burst in our kitchen and everything came down. When it gets hung up again, the photos will be different and it will be in another room entirely. Thanks for five years of internet love!

-Tara

 

This was such a good experience for me. because while i did put my project off to the last minute (figuring out what prints i wanted and ordering them last week) (and putting the prints in the frames this weekend),

AT LEAST I FINISHED SOMETHING I STARTED!

and that my friends, is KEY for me. i am the queen of good intentions. starting something in my house…and then getting sidetracked and starting something else in my house….until there are five or six unfinished projects going on, and im sitting around feeling overwhelmed and crappy.

but this OPAM thing is keeping me accountable. so thank you blogland!

for those of you following along, today is the day to post your after picture on your blog and link here in comments. i also think it would be cool for you to post your before picture along with your after picture, or at least link to the post with the before pictures, like i just did. its also the day to choose your june OPAM, and post the before pictures for that. i am going to do that in a separate post, so each month is easily found when searched for.

so-i hemmed and hawed over how to choose photos. initially i thought i wanted all black and white. until a friend begged me to mix in some tara color, and make it more eclectic, because really, isnt that what is more my style? and i totally agreed with her. also-i was having a really hard time finding photos i wanted to turn black and white to use for this. so i easily gave in and decided to mix it up.

i was also so so so so so in love with the TTV effect that jefra created for my photos, that i decided i wanted all of my frames to be filled with that effect. but i didnt have any photos actually taken in that way except for jefras. so i googled “ttv frame download” and found several sites that offered free downloads. i grabbed a couple that i thought would work. this is a great group on flickr too. also, here is a tutorial for doing it yourself. of course, adding the frame in PS is not as fun as doing it the real way, but i didnt have time on my side, so i cheated.

then came the undertaking of deciding what photos to choose! i knew what i wanted to “say” with this project. its the first thing people will see when they come into my house. so i wanted a BAM kind of statement and a happy portrayal of our life. and i knew i wanted one of each kid, one of jeff and i, and then some fun, funky shots to really make it interesting.

i created a folder on my desktop and copied any photo that i deemed a “maybe” into it. then in photoshop, i created a huge blank canvas, resized and cropped all of those “maybe” images and started dragging and moving them around until i found the perfect arrangement. i added the TTV borders to the nine shots i was using, fiddling with the effect and color until they were what i wanted…and ta da! my photo wall is complete, and completely AWESOME if i may say so myself.

now, even jeff is gung ho to complete our front room. we have been waiting to do it because we have had to focus our funds on other more important things. we have a list of big ticket “to buy” items and this room was just not at the top of the list. but now that this wall makes such a statement, its a shame to have the rest of the room flop.

see? productivity spreads like a weed!

**

Supplies and other info:

Frames: the frames used here were 20×20 glass clip frames, purchased from IKEA. However they are no longer available. IKEA does have other 20×20 frames.
An online source for glass clip frames is here.

TTV tutorial: This was an effect added digitally. Tutorial found here.

TTV border: I found mine here.