As soon as I saw the My Mind's Eye Alphabet Soup cards I knew I wanted to use them in some sort of decor piece for my 11 month old's room.  I love the colors of the cards and the designs are adorable.  Plus, they match the theme/color of his room perfectly!  I wasn't sure quite what I wanted to do though... spell out his name with the letters, hang them on a little "clothesline" on the wall, frame them individually?  But finally I decide the easiest and least expensive way to display them would be in a poster frame.  I happened to find this frame at my local Target and it was actually marked down on clearance to $10.49.  It's a 16x20 brown wood frame.  My next issue was what to use as a background in the frame.  Cardstock or patterned paper obviously aren't large enough.  And I didn't want to spend the extra money on getting the piece matted or anything.  So, I went to my local fabric store and got some white (sort of off white) muslin.  It was $3.99/yd and I got 1/2 a yard just to be safe.  Although really you need less than that...1/4yard. 
 
Once I had everything ready I started to get an idea of how to organize the cards so that they all would fit in the 16x20 space.  This was trial and error and I used the paper insert that came in the frame as a guide.  Here's my layout...
I put 5 cards in each row with 5 rows total.  I left some spaces in between certain cards knowing that I'll fill some of those in later with patterned paper and border stickers.  And I had to show only a sliver of the "Q" card because I didn't have enough space for all 26 cards otherwise!  But I think it works out okay....unless your child's name is Quinn or something.  In that case you should hide a different letter!  ;)
 
Next I worked on attaching the muslin to the frame back.  I'm not sure what the technical name of that piece that fits in the back of the frame to hold the photo in place is... but I'm just going to call it the frame back.  It's the piece with the hangers on it and everything.  But I thought it would work just fine as a "base" for my muslin.  I laid the muslin down on a flat surface, laid the frame back down on top of it, pulled the muslin edges tight around the frame back and started glueing.  I used Alene's Quick Dry Tacky Glue and it worked just fine.  Just put a line of glue along the edge of the frame back and pull the muslin around to glue down.  I had to use some binder clips to hold it in place and keep it all taut while it dried.  (NOTE:  I tried to first glue the muslin right to the other side of the frame back, but the glue showed through and looked bad, so I tore that muslin off and started again this way.  Just in case you think that might work... I want to save you some muslin!)

After the glue dried, I just trimmed the muslin edges down a bit and then started glueing my cards right onto the muslin front in the predetermined order.  Again, I used the tacky glue for this and it was perfect.  Then, I added bits of patterned paper from Drafting Table and some border stickers from En Plein Air to some of the "blank" spots in between cards.  I left some "blanks" open to avoid it being too cluttered looking.

Finally, since the pack of alphabet cards comes with 2 of each design in it, I decided to cut out the images from the duplicate cards and use pop dots to layer them on top of the same image.  This gives it some dimension.
Supplies:  patterned paper - Drafting Table; border stickers: En Plein Air; alphabet cards: My Mind's Eye Alphabet Soup; muslin; 16x20 frame; tacky glue; and adhesive foam

I decided to leave the glass off the front of my frame because I think the colors look nicer with out it.  But if you like the glass on, it will certainly still fit.  And viola... a cheap and easy wall decor item that's educational to boot!  How fun! 

Comments

[Debbie]

such a cute wall hanging !~ love your sig too. =)

[Heather I.]

Love love love it! Great gift idea for someone with a baby on the way! Super cute!

[Regan]

genious....I have been planning something with these too...need more hours in the day

[Danielle Flanders]

adorable! it's fun to see a peek into how you made it. you don't get to see all the hard work put into it just by seeing the photo of the finished project, so this was neat! :)

[Gracie]

Really cute Nicole.:)

[Stefanie Staniak]

This is adorable - Great job! TFS :)

[chris]

this makes me wish i still had little ones running around....very cute!

[Leigh]

SO CUTE! thanks for sharing!

[lorry]

Adorable! Thanks for sharing

[Mary Joyce]

Thanks for Sharing, this is real cute

[iPhone 4S giveaway]

I love to read your studiocalico.typepad.com dude!!

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