Monday, October 31, 2011

What's in a Name?

We've all seen those wonderfully artistic photo letter collages for spelling out your family name or any other word or phrase with special meaning. I've wanted one for a while now, but wasn't sold on any way to do it.

I could purchase this from www.letterperspectives.com,


which would be awesome, but I wasn't willing to pay the $160 for the whole piece, or even $108 for just the pictures. (Seriously?!?)

I considered printing letters in different fonts on patterned paper, using chipboard letters, and trying to find photos online to use for the letters. None of these options was particularly appealing. 

Then I stumbled on this post at Little Mac Shack (seen on Pintrest here). Miss Mac inspired me to summon my courage and try taking my own pictures of objects around my home. It was an amazing experience to go from feeling completely lost and confounded to seeing letters pop up everywhere around my house.

I started snapping away; then pulled the photos into Picasa for some photo editing, uploaded them to Costco Photo, and had them printed by 5:00 PM.


A quick trip to Michaels later (with my additional 25% off any 40% off sale-price frame coupon in hand), I came home with my spoils and got to work.


A little glass cleaning and photo framing later, and I was done! I couldn't believe it! I had wanted a piece like this for so long, and all it took was half a day and $20. 


It also makes it more meaningful that the photos are of objects around my own home. Completely unique and personal. I can't wait to get it up on the wall! Here's another look without the camera flash.


I commented to Darin how grateful I am that it wasn't difficult to find a six opening frame. His reply was, "So that's why you married me--to change your last name to one with six letters instead of seven." Sure, Dear. That's why I married you. *rolls eyes*


PS. I submitted this post to the Fall Pintrest Challenge on Young House Love as mentioned here.

5 comments:

Shannon said...

You are lucky to have a six letter last name - I have an "alphabet" file on Costco photo that I haven't been able to tap because I am still looking for a seven-space frame! I may just settle for seven separate black frames from Ikea, carefully arranged along a chalk line.

btw, have you seen the name pics at Deseret Book? All of the letters come from pictures taken at various temple grounds - SO cool! But I do love the idea of pictures of your own home...

Heather said...

I haven't seen the ones at Deseret Book. Sounds cool! I'll have to check it out.

Maybe you can find a long, skinny frame and get a custom mat cut. Otherwise, I recommend arranging your frames face-down on the floor, laying a long sheet of wax paper over the top, line up the straight edge with the tops of the frames, mark the positions of all of the hangers on the wax paper, tape the wax paper to the wall using a level to ensure it is straight, tap nails through all of the spots you marked, remove the wax paper, and hang the frames. I find this method to be the easiest way to hang a grid. You never know if the hangers on the frames are in just the right spots or not. Good luck! :)

Heather said...

Okay, so I did a little digging out of curiosity, and I found some 7 opening 4x6 frames. They are a little expensive, but at least they exist!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004JPAOIK/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_3?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B001NPB7KS&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=07HEWZY01384XM7RVFPN

http://www.amazon.com/ArtToFrames-Collage-Frame-Photo-Double/dp/B0055LZMTS/ref=pd_sbs_hg_3

Shannon said...

Thanks for the tips and for the research!

Heather said...

You're welcome. :)