On the Wall

It has taken, literally, YEARS to figure this out, with lots of bad ideas and a huge stack of all kinds of photo frames set aside for our garage sale later this spring, but I have finally achieved wall art perfection:

So I didn't like the photo frames because I could never get their placement measured out perfectly (me and my math...sigh) and they always hung a little crooked and our walls are crap, I mean CRAP. They're plaster over metal lathe, and can you imagine a more nightmarish scenario for trying to hang something from a wall? Half the time you hit the steel, and the other half of the time a huge chunk of plaster falls out. And poor Matt, who has the primary responsibility shelf-making in the house--he has uttered swears that I have never heard before, and I have heard a lot of swears.

Anyway, inspired by these Photojojo vinyl wall frames that just stick right to the wall (vinyl decals are way trendy right now, because, I don't know, people need more vinyl in their houses?), I first tried to make my own removable frames with Velcro for re-stick-ability. Cardboard record album covers were a bust because they curled, especially if I tried to decorate them with wallpaper or collage, but even thicker corrugated cardboard tended to curl, and EVEN mat board curled, as well.

So I brought out the big guns. Foamcore, baby. Never gonna bend.

The photos themselves I laminated to make them sturdy to be on the wall without a glass cover over them. My plan is also to swap out the photos and other artwork fairly often, so I needed something quick and dirty. Here's my VERY dirty application method:

Pushpins through the laminate and into the foamcore hold everything nice and secure, doesn't leave much of a mark, and makes it a cinch to swap stuff out.

Now if only a person didn't pretty much have to donate plasma to afford new ink cartridges.