I know it's been nearly a year since I last posted. Apparently, life has been much too entertaining to actually WRITE about it. ;) (Though, I really wish I had... I have about 12 posts forming in my head at any given moment.)
Anyway--I recently finished a major project (one year in the making!) and since I've been asked repeatedly how I did it, I thought I'd put all of the info in one place where I could point people. That, and one of my friends said, "You should pinterest that jank." (That's a direct quote--Hi Hil!) So, here's the jank:
Please excuse the level. My husband had JUST finished hanging all of the pics! (I'm 8 mos. pregnant and don't trust my balance right now...)
So, here are the answers to the questions:
1. The tree is a vinyl sticker I got on etsy. He will customize the initials and even customized the size to fit my space (and pro-rated the cost). Here's a link to the listing in the shop I bought it from: https://www.etsy.com/listing/128999991/family-tree-decal-vinyl-wall-tree-decal?ref=shop_home_active_3&ga_search_query=family%2Btree
2. I started with the trunk/branches. They went up pretty quickly. And then life happened, so that was all we had on the wall for several months. The next thing I added was the shelf at the bottom. I don't remember where I got it--Hobby Lobby? Home Depot? Fred Meyer? It is specifically a picture ledge, 36 in. wide., and was quite easy (for my husband) to hang. The leaves didn't go on until a couple of weeks ago--and those took a LONG time. I cut around each one, and then applied them all individually. I printed out a picture of the tree and taped it to the wall so I could refer to it as I was placing the leaves. I had originally considered not even putting on the leaves, (I got used to the bare tree branches), but I'm glad I did because I love the way it looks now!
3. It took a while to get all of the pictures collected. I used familysearch.org to print out a "fan chart" of my husband's and my family history to make sure I didn't miss anyone. This was one of my favorite parts of the whole process! I specifically asked for wedding pictures or pictures from our family members' younger years. Although some of the pics aren't from that stage of their lives, I absolutely love the pics that I ended up getting. There are still 2 pictures missing--one of my husband's great-grandparents and our #5 baby, who will arrive in a few weeks.
4. I bought all of the frames at Hobby Lobby. You can't beat the price, since they're 50% off every day! The kids pics and the second tier (4 frames) are 4x6. My husband and I are 8x10, first tier (2 frames) is 5x7, and third tier (8 frames) is 3.5x5. Besides the pictures of my kids and us, (which were printed at Costco), I printed the rest at home. I used Microsoft Publisher to resize them and converted a few into black and white.
5. To get all of the pics where I wanted them on the tree, I cut out paper the same size as the outer dimensions of the frame and taped those to the wall. Once those were up, I turned the project over to Ryan--who made sure the pictures were all hung level. He did a fantastic job and adjusted all of my measurements, which were approximate.
This display is on the stair landing in our 2-story entry. I LOVE walking down the stairs and seeing these pics every day. And what I love even more is that my kids are going to be able to put names to faces as they hear stories of these family members.
