DIY Aged Artwork

DIY Aged Artwork;  msalishacarlson.com/

My favorite kind of decorating mixes some old in with the new.  I feel it grows the home’s character even more with it’s unique twist.  In our home, our media cabinet is an old section to a buffet.  An antique chest serves as a coffee table in our living room.  We have rocked all three of our boys in an old family rocking chair that my mother-in-law refinished for us.  Even some of our pictures have had an ‘old’ makeover to become aged artwork!

Ethan’s nursery has a dinosaur theme and although I found the perfect artwork to decorate it with, printing on plain white paper left the graphics feel flat.  Then, I remembered a neat printing trick I had seen years ago on Pinterest… use a paper bag.  The result was just awesome!  Whether you’re decorating with dinosaurs or want to distress your favorite saying, printing on a paper bag will give you the perfect aged artwork!

 

Supplies:

Paper bag

Computer ready graphic

Picture frame

 

How To:

Size your graphic to fit your picture frame.  You may want to add a very light border around the graphic the same size as your frame.  This will serve as a cutting guide.

Cut off the sides, bottom, and handles (if any) from the paper bag.

Cut the front of the paper bag to be 8 1/2″ x 11″.  If possible, try to avoid any folds in this section of paper.

Print your picture.  Because of the bag’s texture, the print will come out distressed.  However, for best image quality:

  • Select “Matte Photo Paper”, “Matte Paper-Heavyweight” or “Premium Paper” as your paper type.
  • Select “High”, “Quality” or “Best” as the print quality.
  • Use the manual feed on your printer.

Cut the picture along the cutting guide lines and frame!

 

Why do I love DIY projects so much?  They are often super inexpensive, but are perfectly personalized to fit you and your home!

Happy “aging”!
Alisha

 

We’re still digging up some prehistoric fun with dinosaurs today!  While my post was for you mommies (because us mommies gotta craft too), you can find some great dinosaur-themed kid arts and crafts here:

Play, Craft & Learn with Dinosaurs

Craftulate

Frogs Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

Lalymom

Glittering Muffins

Alisha

Share this with your friends…