Pull Out the Mod Podge!

I do love crafts, but it's hard to do anything time-consuming when you're overrun with kids and pets, or when your house is in an uproar with holidays or renovations. Here's a necessity-inspired craft that's quick AND inexpensive!

This room was originally a screened-in porch that a previous owner had enclosed. It had horrible panelling and a concrete floor, and they used it as a "den". We decided to turn it into a dining room, so we pulled down the panelling, drywalled what didn't look good as siding or brick, and laid tile. It was a lot of fun, but we had several big surprises (as you usually do with older homes). When we pulled down the panelling we found lots of old siding and brick, which we loved the look of, but we also found a WINDOW. It had been panelled over on this side, and they had built wonderful bookcases on the other side (the living room), so we had NO IDEA. I thought, OK, we'll put up shutters, it will be really cute with the brick and siding and the outdoor-style lights we are going to mount on the wall. No go, unless I wanted to have shutters custom-made. The tile project for the floor was fun, so I was thinking about a tile mosaic sort of thing for the wall, but the window is 4 feet wide and 5 feet tall, so that would be a ton of tile - too heavy - too expensive. Enter Mod Podge. Remember that stuff from childhood? Well, it's even more wonderful now! I bought four artists' canvases and a couple of jars of Mod Podge at Hobby Lobby (on sale of course) and rooted through my scrapbook paper scraps, filling out the colors I wanted more of with a handful of very inexpensive sheets (it doesn't need to be high-quality paper). I cut out about a million squares with my slicer, and then started fiddling around with it. I ended up deciding to paint the canvases with a coat of the same paint I had put on the walls and attaching the paper with Mod Podge in a simple geometric design. Then I brushed a coat of Mod Podge over the whole thing and called it done. My husband attached the canvases with metal brackets (they didn't have one large enough to cover the area I needed to cover) and we hung it on the wall with a regular picture hanger. Well, today I got the new Ballard Designs catalog (LOVE IT) in the mail, and guess what I saw?

This is only 35 inches square and sells for $279 plus a whopping shipping charge. Mine (5 feet by 4 feet) cost about $30 and could be done for less if you already have the Mod Podge or if you don't need one that big. I'm feeling pretty good about myself right now. I think maybe I'll do one with torn paper and some texture for the bathroom next, maybe with some glaze to give it the "antiqued" look of the Ballard Designs one! Looking for some more frugal ideas? Check out The Thrifty Home every Wednesday for Penny Pinching Wednesday - you'll love it! OOh, I'm making this post serve double duty - it's also my Mama Kat Writers' Workshop post for the week!!