Monday, August 10, 2009

Homemaker Monday: A Super-Cool Way to Make Letters With Photos of Architecture!

Welcome to the 52nd weekly edition of...


Thank you for joining us! If you're new to this carnival and would like to enter your post, please check HERE for the rules and regs.

YOURS: This week's "YOURS" goes, again, to Homemaker Barbi for her post on Game Night Snacks! As you know, I usually don't choose non-vegan post for the "YOURS" feature, but as I'm not feeling all too vegan right now, due to my wildly raging early-pregnancy hormones, I thought I'd link up to Homemaker Barbi because she took such pretty pictures of her food and my mouth actually started watering as I lay my eyes on them. Here's one...


She says it was cheap, easy and her guests raved! What could be better? For her other snack plates and recipes, click HERE. Thank you, again, Homemaker Barbi, for being such a faithful Homemaker Monday participant! I appreciate you so much and I hope you have a great day!

MINE: As mentioned in previous posts, such as HERE and HERE, my trip to Utah was not my most favorite trip ever. However, while there, my mother and I came across an idea that I think is going to change my life. Well, just briefly, for short periods of time. While shopping in a Mormon book store called Deseret Book, my mother encountered a gorgeous wall plaque. It spelled out the word "FAMILY" with cropped photographs of sepia-toned architecture, photographed at various Mormon temples.

We marveled at the beauty of it, she purchased it and took it to FedEx to have it mailed home to her, paying $11 for just the box it was packaged in, not including the other packing material and the cost of shipping, but it was all worth it. (On a side note, she now refuses to throw away the box it was packaged in, because she had had to pay $11 for it. I wonder how long it will sit in her kitchen.)

As we pondered various deep thoughts during the 13 hours with the twins on our way home, I came up with an idea. "Mom," I said, "Why couldn't we take pictures of structures and come up with our own alphabet and make similar wall hangings?"

"That is a GREAT idea!" she exclaimed.

We then thought of all the places we could go to take photographs of architecture and how fun it would be, as long as we left the twins as home of course, and how we would begin planning our outings as soon as we arrived home.

When we did arrive home, my mind was alert and astute, and I began finding letters everywhere I turned. My mother's backyard happened to be a plethora of alphabet fodder and we began taking pictures. Here are four original, unedited and uncropped photos we took that day....





A few days later, when I was back home in Mexico, and we didn't have power, probably because some drunk fellow had run into a light post, thus leaving us without internet, I thought I would spend some insomniac time going through the photos. I cropped some of them and changed their attributes to all equal the same height, and here is the first word I came up with, and, I think, probably the most important word there is in the universe...


Now, I want you to know that I did not print out my photos, cut them neatly out of printer paper, then tack them, with matching blue tacks, to a perfectly rustified wall. I uploaded them to a website called ScrapBlog.com and used virtual walls and tacks. This is the website where I go to make all the buttons you see on my blog, including my header picture. It's too fun!

That being said, if you had time to do this in real life, which I don't, you would actually have to print the photos out and have them matted and framed. There are a number of ways you could do that.

First, you could line the photos up with no space between them and have one large mat made around them, like so...


...or second, you could have each photo matted individually, like this...


There are also different looks you could give your photos. In the following example I again went to ScrapBlog.com and used their photo editing tools to give my pictures a sepia tone. I really loved how this one turned out...


You could also print your photos out on iron-on transfer paper, then iron them on to linen or muslin, something with an obvious weave, as per THESE instructions.

Or you could steer away from architecture and get your alphabet from photos of nature or kitchen paraphenalia or food!

I'm am so full of amazing ideas, it is just unbelievable! Oh, and by the way, in case it didn't register what my word said, it was "LOVE". The 13-year-old boy saw it immediately, so if you didn't, well...then....I guess there's something wrong with you you don't think like a 13-year-old boy.

So let me know if you actually do one of these in real life. I would really like to see how it turns out! Have a great day!

OURS: Okay, I'm so excited to see what all of you awesome homemakers have for us today! Feel free to search through your archives for any tips, recipes or how-tos, especially if you'd like to join in for the first time. Thanks so much for joining us today and have a great Homemaker Monday!

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14 comments:

Jenn said...

How clever! I had planned doing something similar to this last year to decorate my daughter's room. I planned to spell out her name. I say planned-I've got all the pictures, I just need to crop, print, matte, and mount. Yes, lots of work. Now I think I'll try ScrapBlog.com to make it easier and FINALLY finish this long overdue project!!! Thanks ;)

Anonymous said...

That is a cool idea. I love the LOVE one you came up with. Thanks for sharing.

JP said...

Good one...will try this.

Jerri at Simply Sweet Home said...

Cool pictures. Very creative idea!

alessandra said...

Ahaaaa, thank you, I always wondered how you made your buttons and header.
Very creative and cool idea, now your hormones are doing a good job ;-)
Love!

Hoosier Homemade said...

That's a great idea! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for hosting too!
~Liz

Terry said...

Great than you can see these patterns in ordinary things. Now I'm going to be looking out for them myself.

santamaker said...

Your architectual letters are gorgeous. Love the way it turned out. I have been collecting my own alphabet photography, so I walk with my camera in hand. The other day I was walking with my friend, and I said, "Stop, I see the best "H"!

Blue Creek Home said...

I have a ton of architectural letters that I have photographed and sized in my computer. Just never did anything with them.
I think maybe I'm ready, thanks to your helpful post!
Thanks for the website suggestion.
Rhonda

Anonymous said...

I just found you over at Met Monday. This is an absolutely fabulous idea! And I must think like a 13 year old boy, because I saw the "Love" right away!

Christine said...

Ooh I love it! I just got back from vacation in Massachusetts, where I took pictures of each of the letters in Massachusetts to create a cool title. I tried to get mine to be unique to MA...like the T in a circle from the trolley, the U from the Duck tour, an S from Salem, etc. I'm off to the scrapblog.com link you provided. Thanks! :)

debi9kids said...

How fun! I will have to list this on my Meme blog so that I remember to do it each week.

Cheryl B. said...

Wonderous idea!!! While out mission store shopping recently with a friend, she had commented on how I never just look at things as what they currently are ... I know that now I am going to be seeing letters everywhere too ;-}

Momof4 said...

I saw a set of framed pics like this at a friend's house. I think she paid to have it custom done. I had been thinking of doing it for us. Now I have to come up with a way to 1. leave the house and 2. find cool architecture. Not easy. Hmmmm. I'd like the letters to spell our last name & frame & hang in our foyer.

Thanks for the ideas on how to make this happen, including scrapblog link.