(This is not a sponsored post.  I am not receiving compensation from any of the websites I mention in this post.)

New Years is passed, holiday decorations are down, and Valentines Day has come and gone.  While I begrudgingly packed my heap of decorations strewn across my dining room table I couldn’t help but think ‘there must be a simpler way to decorate.’

Our house is small.  It isn’t Tiny House Nation small, but for our family of six our 1,100 square foot 1891 farm house with low ceilings and very little storage is bursting at the seams.  

Last September I hung up some hooks in attempt to create a landing area for our kids jackets and backpacks. Its was wishful thinking that they would actually hang such items on the hooks rather than drop their backpacks and jackets on the floor beneath them.  I tried to be all inspo and made a little artsy photo on picmonkey.com that said “Work Hard + Have Fun.”  I dug out an unused frame, stuck in my photo and hung it above the hooks.  The kids really liked it, although it didn’t have any effect on their ability to utilize the simple coat hook system.  

Back to several weeks ago… As I sat on my teal settee watching Poldark and feeling defeated, I glanced at the mess and my inspirational frame and thought, why not turn that into a holiday decoration for all holidays?

The result?  I loved it!

This is how I made it…

Supplies:

Computer

Printer

Printer Paper

Picture Frame (any kind you like that works with your decor – table top or wall hanging)

Gel and Glitter Pens if Desired.

Step 1:  Make a list of every holiday or season that is important to you.  

Winter, Valentines Day, Spring, Summer, Back to School, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas make me happy.  You can choose any seasons, holidays and occasions which you celebrate and love. 

Step 2:  Download holiday appropriate images.

Search your personal photos and/or free photos on the internet which are relevant to the holidays and seasons you selected.  I used unsplash.com because they have a huge, beautiful selection of free, high resolution images. 

Step 3:  Search for holiday appropriate phrases or quotes. 

Match a quote, phrase, or even a song title to each of the images you picked.

Step 4:  Choose your photo editor.

If you already have Adobe Illustrator or Adobe PhotoShop you are all set.  However if you don’t own this expensive and somewhat difficult to use without training software you have no need to worry. PicMonkey.com it is very user friendly and free with options to pay for advanced tools.  Search for “free photo editors” and several options will pop up.  Pick the one that works best for you. 

Step 5:  Edit your photos

Once you upload your photos into the photo editor your choice…

1 – Crop the photo to the proper size and proportion of your frame.

2 – Add a filter if you desire – I added a softening filter over my summer photo and changed my Halloween photo to black & white and added a vignette.  

3 – Add your text on top of your photo.  Play with fonts and font size to make it fit nicely over your photo.

4 – Don’t forget to save your images!

Step 6:  Print!

Step 7:  Cut your photos to size.  

Did you use a 5×7 frame but everything is printed on 8 1/2 X 11 paper?  Is your image oval?  I used the mat that came with my frame as my oval shape template.  You can use the back of the frame or the glass if you like to make sure your shape is correct.  WARNING:  If you use the glass, be extra careful not to cut yourself!

Step 8:  Decorate with your markers.

On a few of my images I highlighted the letters with the gel pens and glitter pens to give them a little extra holiday pizzaz.  I added the glitter for Halloween, Christmas and Valentines Day.  

Step 9:  Insert your photos.

Once your photos are cut and decorated and completely dry, place all of them inside the single frame with the current holiday appropriate image showing! 

Step 10:  Hang and Enjoy.

If your frame needs to be hung on the wall, hang it up.  Otherwise, set it wherever you like and enjoy your new, ready to go, decoration!  When it is time to change your decor over to the next holiday, simply pull the back off your frame, swap to your next photo and you are ready to go!  No storage or excessive amounts of time necessary!

Alternative Ideas – Are you not savvy with a computer?  You can draw pictures yourself or have your kiddo draw some pictures for you.  

Did you make this?  Share a photos of your frame in the comments below and let us know what you think!