DIY: Magazine Collage Wall Art

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Happy Tuesday and welcome to the first ever It's So Ugly, It's Cool challenge. Basically, this challenge was created to showcase how we turn pieces that have been turned away...or maybe even down-right hideous into beautiful pieces that fit our home decor style. Today, I will be sharing my DIY Magazine Collage Wall Art that is featured in my dining room. I have been waiting a month and some days to show this bad baby off and today is that day!

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I purchased my base for this project (the large frame and all) for $4.99 each (back in 2012)...yes, I did!--I know, Hoard Status!!! I bought 3 wall art that belonged to a set of like 6 with the intentions of doing something to it. I always wanted to do a large magazine collage, but in my last house I did not have the wall space to hang something this crazy in there without its beauty being overshadowed by darkness (haha, I lived in a dungeon). When I first purchased the wall art, it had some type of farmland print inside of it, being the lazy girl I am...I decided to paint some abstract image on the glass. At the time the mister liked the farmland print and I despised it, so I created a happy medium. Ever since, I moved...I knew that I would make my dream of magazine collage art come true...so I finally just did it! What gave me the BIG push to make me feel like this was not kiddish and too high school was when I saw this image.---game on!

Sidenote: I was totally that girl in middle school and high school to cover her books with brown paper bag and create collages on top of it using fashion magazine and then laminate my whole book with clear duck tape...haha, memories! This project is so up my alley, it is ridiculous!

Materials:

Base-I used a large frame WITH glass and backing still attached

Paint-I used white

Magazine(s)

Mod Podge

Paint brush

Scissors

I saw this thang ^^^ in one of my fashion magazines (Vogue, I believe) and it spoke to me!

So......Are you ready for JESSICA?

Want to know how I created my collage?

Steps:

1. I painted my base (frame and glass) all one solid color---white

2. After it dried, I found images in some of my favorite fashion magazines and tore them out.

3. I realized that I gravitated towards certain colors, so I separated them into piles based off of the colors in the images (green and browns, blues, and blush pink and beige)

4. Once I organized my images, I cut/tore the access "dead space" around the images off (see image below).

Steps continue...

5. I laid out how I wanted the images scattered on my base (I did each collage separately)

6. Carefully, I applied mod lodge with a paint brush to the back of my images, starting with larger pictures than working my way towards smaller pictures.

7. once pictures were situated on base and backs were dried, I applied clear mod lodge on front of image to make sure that photos were secure and in place.

8. hang it up!

Voila, that is it. Simple, stylistic art! I know that this may not be everyone's cup of tea, but this wall art in particular is my absolute favorite and I am so happy that I kept my frames for the past 3+ years to create something so beautiful and personal to me.

I hope you enjoyed this months It's So Ugly, It's Cool Challenge, Please stop on by the other participants sites to see what "ugly" thing they made cool. Oh and please excuse This is Our Bliss from this months line up, she had a family emergency and will be back next month. If you want to share a thrifted/yardsale/curb alert/flea market piece that you repurposed, please do so via instagram and tag your item #itssouglyitscool--this is a good way to meet others who have a knack for repurposing/upcycling cool finds.

Domicile 37 // Britt Kingery // Shabby Grace Blog // Up To Date Interiors // Vintage Romance Style //A Designer at Home // Casa Watkins // Iris Nacole