A Tale of Two Pictures

It is taking me a while to get to all the things I want to do to create the Gallery Wall in the living room.

The theme of my gallery wall will be "The Garden." Anything that pertains to the garden--birds, bees, butterflies, plants, garden plans, all are included.

These are just two of my most recent projects.

Here's the Before and After:





The whole Maghilla:

The old piece of framed embroidery I found at Value Village many years ago.


I've always felt that I could do better with it, though.

While on the hunt, recently, I found this original piece of art at Value Village. I believe it is pencil crayon on watercolour paper.


One of the reasons I planned out the wall was to see if some of the smaller pieces I had --like the embroidered bird-- would fit as they were or if I needed to put them in a larger frame. I decided the bird and the strawberry would make great companion pieces inside identical 8 x 10 black frames.


It's hard to see, but the original frame for the strawberry was a bronzy-pink coloured metal (above). Not my taste. So, after I found a screwdriver small enough, I started taking it apart.



The frame of the bird was much easier--I just ripped off the packing tape.



There was a surprise with each.

On the back of the Strawberry print was this partial piece of artwork:



Isn't that wonderful? The writing says,

Lillian Pierson
Cold Lake, Alta
June/80

L. Pierson is sketched on the front. I wonder why she cut this up. Was it not good enough for her? I would have loved it--better than the strawberry. I'm quite sentimental about grain elevators, though, seeing as I have watched them all disappear from the landscape in my lifetime.

Inside the embroidered bird was another print as well:



It's an illustration by George Cruikshank entitled August. It feels like a page from a book and it is a bit yellowed.

I knew exactly what I wanted to do with the artwork.

I found the idea on-line, on another blog, now lost to me in cyberspace. I'm so sorry. I'd thought I had book marked it, but now I can't find it.

Essentially, I double matted each piece of artwork. The interior mats on each are brown. (I just kept the one that came with the strawberries and cut a piece of brown cardstock for the bird). The second outer mat, though based on the original green mat of the Strawberries piece was customized for each piece of artwork.

To make the customized mats, I first made a base mat from a piece of scrap cardstock for each piece--the outer dimensions were the size of my glass. The inner dimensions about 1/4" larger than the opening of the brown mat, all the way around.

Then, for the bird, I found some vintage sheet music via our friend Google. I manipulated it to be the way I wanted it, printed it out and started tearing it up.



Once I had it to my liking, I modge podged it all down to the grey mat.

For Strawberries, I was inspired by the handwriting on the back and used a piece of scrapbook paper I've had for a long time. (I believe it was an old piece by 7Gypsies).

I placed them between sheets of waxed paper and weighted them down.

I cut the mats after they'd dried.


And now, here they are:

The Bird:


and The Strawberry:



Again, in case you've forgotten!

Before and After:




Here's hoping the other projects for the Gallery Wall work out well.