Thursday, May 3, 2012

More Vacation Art

Back in the day, I wrote about how Chris and I try to look for vacation art when we're traveling. Before, we would look for actual prints or paintings to frame when we returned home.  Now we're trying to get a little more creative with ways to incorporate our travels into our home decor.


That is a 4 x 6 frame for our gallery wall with a memento from San Antonio which holds a special place in our heart.  It's actually a magnet that we picked up for $4!  I was really excited about how it looks in the frame because of the added dimension from the floating mats and raised backing of the magnets.

On this past cruise we were on the look out to find something that could fill in one of the empty 5 x 5 opening frames that we have and decided on a shell coaster from Grand Cayman.  The size worked out perfectly, but the thickness of the shells... not so much.  I was so sure that I could make it work but alas, the sounds of cracking shells proved that I could not.


No fear, I was determined to do something with this!  I started to cut the coaster apart only to realize that the holes which held the shells together are very noticeable if I wanted to lay the shells flat.


Due to the holes and the amount of space I had between the frame glass and the backing I decided to just work with the little shells around the edge.  I played around a bit until I came up with a design that I was happy with.  Onto some left over scrap paper that I had on hand and this is the final product.



I wasn't sure if I really wanted to keep this color paper, so right now it's just tapped down instead of glued.  Once I finally make up my mind I'll glue it so the paper is flat.  The shells bring back memories of our cruise, as well as childhood memories when I used to collect shells from the shore.

Did you ever collect shells on the beach?


8 comments:

  1. It looks so cute! I never would have thought to rescue the coaster like that, haha. I love it!

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  2. that is such a great idea to keep mementos of your trips in a way that will be noticed and not tucked away somewhere! my husband does collect shells, and this would be a nice way to display them. not that i'm going to do it because that would take effort, but still, i considered it for a brief second.

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    1. HA! :) I'm sure Chris thought I was a little crazy for the amount of time I spent on something so small.

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  3. I really like this idea! I've never been big on souveniers since I don't like to keep "stuff" around, but turning it into art is a great way to keep the memory without having tchotckes all over the house!

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    1. I used to be so bad about collecting "stuff" on vacations. This has given me a way to focus when window shopping on trips!

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  4. Adorbs! Very creative. ST bought me an original painting of a chicken off the streets of New Orleans. Haven't been able to find anything like it since. I love nostalgic art.

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  5. I love bringing home art from vacations, too! I love what you did with the shells! I'm a huge fan of the beach, and I have a stupidly large shell collection (only it's mostly in bags and very unkempt - this might be a great inspiration to do something with them!).

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  6. This is so great! I would have never thought to turn the coaster into cute art!

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