Getting These Pictures Out of my Guest Room

Remember these? I've been storing them in my guest room for the past several years because I didn't want to hang them in our family room downstairs until we got new furniture.

Well, we don't have new furniture yet, at least downstairs, but I got dang tired of moving these things in and out of the guest room every time someone came to visit me. That and my basement walls are bare, so I decided that these pictures should just go up already. 

Yeah, I did decide that awhile ago, but you know that little procrastination habit I have, yep I've been putting it off. So, I figured this would be the perfect undesirable project for me to complete for Tackle it Tuesday over at 5 Minutes for Mom and for the November Procrastination Challenge over at Virtually Organized. Accountability is a beautiful thing.

So, here's how an anal person like me puts up a multiple picture arrangement.

First I take up two of my crop tables and tape together four large pieces of grid chart paper.

Then I lay my pictures down and start moving them around. When I have them how I want them I trace them onto the paper, write down which picture goes where, and then put an X where the hanger is so I know exactly where to put my nail.

Then I tape the paper to the wall. I have to get it exactly where I want it and make sure it's level, then I grab my hammer and start nailing those hangars in right on top of the paper. Bizarre, huh?

Next, I yank the paper out from underneath all those hangars and set it aside so I can refer to it once I start hanging my pictures. The yanking part is super satisfying because there's some tearing involved. Yay!

Then I run and get my poster putty. This is a must for me. I cannot stand to have crooked and tilting pictures (I have symmetry issues), and this stuff keeps them from moving around. All you need is a little ball of it on the back of the bottom part of the frame. It's a little like gum, but not as sticky and gross.

Now that I've hung my pictures, I'm ready to add the vinyl that I bought years ago and never put up. I also decided that I needed a little something else, so I made a stencil to add the word "Family" to the top of my arrangement.

I just typed this into Microsoft Word and blew the font up to something ridiculous like 250 points. Then I cut it out with my craft knife, making sure to keep the inside of the lower case a.

Lastly, I taped my stencil up and then dabbed at it with my pouncer dipped in paint. While it dried, Peanut Head helped me put the vinyl up.

Ta Da! I think the vinyl might be a little crooked, but I'm going to overlook it for now. I'm thinking that it might be nice to have it in a larger font too. Maybe my BFF, Janae, can hook me up. She has the ginormous Cricut and she knows how to do this kind of stuff.

And I clearly need to get some pictures printed for those two empty frames, don't you think?