Antique Plate Collage Wall Art

 Inspiration Photo Series

Ever get inspired by a photo? I always do! I see images of art work, decor, jewelry, recipes, etc. in magazines, Pinterest, and in person. Seeing these creative displays inspires me to push myself to design my own version of it. My goal is never to replicate the inspiration, but to use the ideas or techniques and make it my own.

I began an antique plate collection many years ago as a young teenager when I came upon a few of my grandmother's plates. She was a lover of tradition, elegance and class. She collected serving plates, platters, saucers and simple decorative plates that were displayed modestly in her home.

As a teenager, I had a tastefully decorated bedroom with a few of these plates adorning the walls. No posters of N'Sync or Backstreet Boys hanging from my walls!

After college, I finally got a grown up apartment and wanted to decorate it as such. I had my grandmother's plates tucked away somewhere safe. I came across an inspiration photo of a antique plate collage wall art in a magazine. I instantly knew that this would be the perfect way to display my grandmother's plates. I ripped out the page and went to work! I didn't have enough plates so I began a search to find the perfect additions. I found some lovely plates at Anthropologie and I collected a few more here and there. When I had enough, I began my design.

Can you tell which ones are antique and which ones are new?

I gathered all of the materials including nails, plate hangers of all sizes, a hammer and paper. I used the paper to make a template on the wall to know where the plates would look best. After moving a few plates around, I finished my wall art!

I loved my antique plate collage so much that I redid it in my new home. I tweaked the design a bit after receiving some great additions to my collection. 

Get some inspiration from these Pinterest photos of plate wall art!

 

Here's another look at my antique plates wall art displayed in my breakfast area of my kitchen.

See something you like? You can make it yourself! Always believe that you can do it. It may take a few tries, but don't give up. You'll figure it out and get better along the way. I'll help you! Just ask me for help and we'll brainstorm ideas together. 

Best of luck with your creative inspiration!

Randee

Lemon Wreath

Lemon Wreath Tutorial

I finally did it! By it, I mean I finally found time to create the lemon wreath that I've been procrastinating about all summer. It's still summer, right? Good. Then, I'm not too late to have the lemon wreathes hanging on my front door! Time to quit looking at all the plastic lemons hanging around my house. Let's get down to business!

Materials:


5 large artificial lemons
10 small artificial lemons-textured
10 small artificial lemons-smooth 
1 15.5" grapevine wreath
1 stem artificial greenery
4' burlap ribbon

6-8" green floral wire
hot glue
wire cutters
scissors

I purchased most of the materials from Michael's and Amazon. I bought the ribbon on clearance (oh, yeah!) at Michael's along with the greenery and large lemons. The small lemons are from Amazon and the remaining items were materials I already had at home. I provided links to most of the items, but I wasn't able to find the link to the greenery. Sorry!

Directions:

Part 1: Lemons & Greenery

 1. Using the wire cutters, cut the greenery into segments leaving 1-2" of stem. Set aside.

Don't waste that stem! This would be great to spray paint and cover in glitter for Christmas!

2. Get ready for the lemons! Lay the large lemons out to plan their location before the glue. Leave a space wide enough for the bow.

3. Place the hot glue on the entire length of the lemon and stick! Repeat for all 5 large lemons.

4. Grab the greenery! Place hot glue on the entire length of the stem.

5. Angle the stem down and insert into grapevine wreath on the side of the lemon. 

 

6. Insert greenery on opposite side of the lemon.

 7. Repeat steps 5 & 6 with all lemons.

8. Lay out about half of the small textured lemons in the empty spaces and the others next to the large lemons to see what looks best. Then, glue!

9. Insert the greenery on either side of the small lemons adding more to empty spaces.

10. Repeat step 8 with the small smooth lemons making sure to continue leaving an open space for the bow.

11. Cut the remaining greenery in to small pieces.

12. Insert the remaining greenery throughout the wreath filling in any empty spaces.

Part 2: The Bow

1. Unroll the entire spool of ribbon and cut in half. This roll was 8' so I had 4' of ribbon to use for one bow since I was making two wreaths. If not making two ribbons, cut 4' of ribbon off of your spool.

2. Gather and pinch the ribbon about 1' from the edge. 

 

 3. Twist the long end of the ribbon to the opposite side. 

4. Flip the long end of the ribbon over to make a small loop. 

5. Gather the ribbon and pinch in the center with the same hand. Can you hold all of this? Yes, you can! Keep going. There's more!

6. The underside of the ribbon will be showing this point. Twist the long end of the ribbon to the top side.

7. With the long end of the ribbon, make a loop slightly bigger than the center loop. Gather and pinch in the middle. 

8. Make a loop on the opposite side. Gather and pinch in the middle. Are your hands cramping yet? Twist the remaining ribbon to the top side.

9. Place the wire through the center loop.

10. Twist the wire tightly to secure the bow. You may need a pair of pliers to get a tight squeeze if you have thick ribbon.

11. Insert the two wire ends of the bow in the empty space on the front of the wreath.

12. Flip the wreath carefully and find the two wire ends. Pull tightly!

13. Twist the wire tightly.

 14. Tuck the wire end into the wreath.

15. Flip the wreath to the front and fluff the bow. Trim the ribbon at an angle. Make your ribbon lengths symmetrical if you'd like....I like asymmetry. 

You're done!

 Make two wreaths if you have double doors like me!

See that dangling little lemon on the top left? I didn't notice it until after I took the pictures. Be sure to glue your lemons better than I did. Hey, I never said I was perfect!