thrifty thursday ~ wooden photo collage

Have you seen those cool 7Gypsies Artist's trays that are so neat?? You can see a bunch of examples here. I've been wanting one for a loooong time but I didn't want to spend the 20 bucks (+ shipping). Yes, I'm cheap. I rather prefer to call myself thrifty :)

So I've been on the hunt for something similar that I could fix up to use for my photo collage. Then I came upon this little beauty at the thrift store a couple weeks ago:

Jackpot!!! Not sure what this thing was used for or how old it is but it was exactly what I was looking for. And the best part?? It was just 4 bucks! 

I decided that I wanted my collage to be about summer photos. And wouldn't you know it, my Noel Mignon kit arrived just yesterday filled with all kinds of summer goodies. Perfect!!!

First I painted the tray white. Since I was using fun, bright summer papers I wanted the tray to lighten up, too. But I didn't want it to look all white so after 3 coats of spray paint (my new best decorating friend) I sanded the edges up a bit for that distressed look. Then I set out to trim papers & photos to fit in all the little squares. Because this tray is who-knows-how-old all of the squares weren't quite the same size and I had to do quite a bit of trimming here and there. That's ok. It's unique, right?!

And since I was using fun and bright papers & embellishments, I decided to print my photos in black and white so that they would stand out a bit and not compete with the papers.

I am so happy with how it turned out! I popped up some of the embellishments with foam adhesive and added some butterflies along the outside for added interest. I also popped up a few of the photos...I used 4 foam squares to really make them stand out.

You can see how the photo of my son is a lot further forward than the photo of my daughter. I like the look that gives to the collage.

And when it came to how to hang this, I added a simple drawer handle that I picked up at the store for 5 bucks (for the pair). I'll use the other one in another project I'm sure. The handle adds some visual interest and I can either keep this collage on a table or add a ribbon and hang it on the wall. I attached it with Gorilla Glue because the screws would show through so we'll see how long that holds...I'll let ya know!

I will be linking up to:

Happy thrifting!!!