state [of the] art, part 1

to add a little punch to our guest room, we wanted to add some pops of color. inspired by a blog post that referred me to a now-closed etsy shop, i fell for the idea of personalizing some graphic art prints of various US states. (i can't remember where i saw the inspiring post, sorry about that.)

since most of the folks using that room would be our family, we thought it'd be fun a fun way to make the room feel a little more like home. because i prefer collections in odd numbers, we picked the following five states:

arkansas: where my parents both currently live & my hometown
california: where Zenn [cricket's brother & sis-in-law] live
georgia: where we live, duh [and later realized no one would be using this room from here, so we scrapped this frame when we ran out of wall space]
ohio: where Hippie Sis + new hubs The Professor are saving the world, one water molecule at a time
texas: where Teacher Sis lives, shaping the future of America

i picked up 5 Ribba frames from Ikea, with aluminum frame & white mattes, for $17.99 each. the interior matted space is 11.5" square, so perfect for a 12x12 print.

[ikea ribba frame @ $17.99ea]

i played with the idea of using punch scrapbook paper as the background and cutting out solid shapes of the states. this would make them easily interchangeable if anyone decides to move elsewhere. but the scrapbook paper gods weren't on my side when i was shopping for the right mix of pattern + color, so i busted out photoshop to create the "custom" art. a little clip art & a few tutorials later, art was complete.

i shipped it off via the interweb to a print shop. a few hours and $3/each later, i popped them in the frames. determining the wall placement will be the hardest part. for now, they're just laid out on the bed. they'll make it to the wall eventually. as will the bird plates.

if you happen to have folks in the same states, or just a fondness of these particular places, you can download the art files here. i'd love to see how you use them!

arkansas
california
ohio
texas

the finished product reveal, coming soon.