Saw It. Pinned It. Did It.

THIS PROJECT!!! I am SO excited about it! 

Ok, first things first. I am linking up with Steph and Katie for the weekly Saw It. Pinned It. Did It. There are always so many things I see on Pinterest that I want to do, and this is a great excuse to show them off!

One of my goals this year was to decorate my home with some of my photography from around the farm. Once I saw this original pin, I knew what I wanted to do:

First, I had to find an old window...which, was actually not that hard to do when you live on a farm that's been around for years and years, with lots of old buildings. I actually found one on accident, while getting something out of the old garage at my in-laws' house. I was looking for something and happened to glance in the very back behind some old wood. I found this old window frame from their house. I have no idea how old it is, but didn't care! It was perfect!

Some of the paint was chipped off, it was dirty and covered in dead bugs and cobwebs, so I cleaned it up a little bit. But not too much, because I think it adds to the charm :)

Next, I printed a bunch of my pictures that I've taken over the past couple of years, and laid them out how I wanted them in the frame. I used a mixture of fields, sunsets and machinery.

 

This step was very important: I took a picture, so I knew what order I wanted them to go in when I flipped the thing over, since I was going to apply the pictures behind the glass.

After I made sure all of the pictures matched up where I wanted them, I started in with the Mod Podge. I want to stress to put a VERY SMALL amount on there, or else the pictures will dry with funny bubbles in the front of them. This happened on several of my pictures. I would also recommend firmly pressing down evenly on the back of the picture from top to bottom-with the grain of the mod podge-so there are no air bubbles and everything is going the same direction. This will ensure you get all of the air bubbles out. (You could probably also just mod podge around the edge of the pictures and in the blank space, but I wanted the weathered effect in front of my pictures, so I put mod podge on the whole thing and then put my pictures down).

Let it dry, and then I sprayed a clear coat of spray paint on the back to seal everything really well.

And this is my final product! (Sorry for the glare behind it-it was a sunny day!)

It looks kind of funny in the pictures, but it looks a lot better in person, I promise! And I think with things like these, I don't want perfection-I want something a little more rustic looking! Overall I'm happy with it, and can't wait to hang it in our master bedroom!