The Flowers That Bloom In the Spring, Tra La

I like to take pictures of flowers really close up, who doesn't?  Macro photography is another hobby of mine.  Example:

I wanted to use my photography in my decor.  I had one of my photos blown up on canvas by www.chiccanvas.com to the largest size they had 30 x 40. I wanted to put this canvas centered over my couch ("well, what would you do?").  So I did, but it just wasn't big enough for the wall and I wasn't satisfied.  I love the colors but something was missing.  So I thought and I thought and then it occurred to me, I love diamonds and gemstones, I use it as part of my decor, so why not bling up the canvas!  Here's what the canvas looks like on the wall before I got crafty.

See what I mean?  The proportion is all wrong.  Though my lovely white side tables and green lamps are really cool.  (excuse the sheet on the couch, have kitty need sheet)

So I made a floating bling frame to go around the canvas and here's how I did it.  First I measured of course and figured out how big I wanted the frame to be.  Then I went on to ebay and found square flat backed foil backed acrylic rhinestones that were 12mm.  I bought 2000 of those suckers for almost nothing, thank you ebay!  I then went to home goods and found white pre-painted 8 foot pieces of wood that were 3 inches wide (12mm pieces would fit in 5 rows) and 1 inch deep.  I have a hand saw, nothing fancy, that I used to cut the wood into 4 pieces.  2 longer ones and 2 shorter ones.  I then went back to home depot and found brackets and wood screws so I could join the 4 pieces in the back so it would be rock solid and invisible.  I joined the pieces - 2 long pieces on the right and left and the 2 shorter ones on top and on bottom to make the frame size I wanted.  Then I painted the whole thing silver using acrylic paint.  Then using Elmer's clear glue, I glued down 1800 individual 12mm square rhinestones, one by one and made sure they were in even lines.  This took several sessions over a few days. After it dried, I hung it up on the wall around my canvas and here's what it looks like now in all of it's AWESOMENESS!!!

Doesn't it make the wall pop!  Here is a closeup so you can see more detail.

More bling later.....

In the meantime, thanks for stopping by and stay tuned for more creativity!