$M: Smart Art

I love to change what's in the frames at my house. Of course I frame photos, but, I love to find neat, inexpensive things, too. Like neat paper, pages of books, or fabric, or things my kids create, or images I've found in the vast public domain.

Here's a few things I've done recently... Man I love that I get to blog about anything I want.

I printed this sketch study of a hand by accident, and then put it in my master bathroom. I got these two shadow box frames at Target for $4 each on clearance. You can stick things in there with the included pearl-pins, or do whatever you want. Last March we made these- Grace wrote two lines, Patience wrote two lines, of a little poem I made up when I was desperate for spring to get here... We are waiting for the things That will come with the spring. (Hallelujah, they've arrived!!)

All the pictures are printed from public domain sites, I'll share them below. I printed them at home, then I cut them out and arranged them how I wanted.

Here's some butterflies for spring and summer...

And here's one that was originally a lovely black and white...

And here's what it looks like after I edited it and cropped it for a square frame (not a complete project yet).

A package of good card stock and some ink can do incredible things.

Here's a few of my favorite, reliable sources for public domain images... Remember to make sure you're using sites with TRULY free-to-use images, and then just find the ones you love and right click to save them to a special file and use at-will.

Decorative Arts: The Grammar of Ornament (you'll have to search through the book's pages for lots of neat things to see)

Karen's Whimsy (awesome, awesome nature pictures and drawings!)

Briar Press (really cool letters, words, etc.) This is where I got the letters for this last Christmas.

If you've got a few favorite sites or ideas up your sleeve, share the love!