Family Crossword Puzzle Wall Art

The house we currently live in has a large Master bedroom with so many walls to fill.  I have managed to hang up quite a few things but there was one  large empty wall and one small space that I had been trying to decorate forever (almost 2 years).  My main goal was to make the walls look good but without breaking the bank.  Well in my search I came up with quite a few different ideas but I decided to settle on two.  In this post I will show you what I came up with for the large empty wall on my room.  Like the title says I settled on a family crossword puzzle.  

I came up with this idea after stumbling upon a Scrabble like crossword puzzles Posh Tots with the words "Imagine, Dream, Believe" on it.  The crossword puzzle looked beautiful, made in wood but to me the cost was just way to high at $500.  Based on that idea I started looking at a few other examples on Pinterest and I found one I liked using white canvas and painted black letters.  With these two inspiring ideas in mind I put myself to work in designing something of my own.  The basic idea was clear:  Crossword puzzle.  The additional requirements were to make it personal, make it colorful, and not spend more that 50  Euro (about $60) on it. 

When thinking about personalizing something the quickest thing that comes to mind is names.  So I decided to use our names instead of other words.  I thought it was also a clever way to show the family link we share.  To make the wall art colorful, I decided on choosing different matching colors for each member to keep some consistency.   With these ideas I went to Ikea to see what I could come up with.  I was really lucky to find picture frames for 1 Euro each.  I selected white frames for me and my husband and green and blue frames for each of the kids.  For the letters I used old magazines cutouts and for the background I used different color cardboard paper. 

I think the outcome really worked and it could not been any cheaper.  I spent less than 40 Euro ($50) in total and my wall is filled up with a personalized wall art.

Materials:

-colored picture frames. (I used Ikea's but an alternative is to get plain frames and paint them)
-old magazines/children's book, etc
-scissors
-color cardboard paper
-photo adhesive squares or double sided tape
-ruler

How to:

-First try a few different crossword name options on paper. 
Make sure you match the best crossword option to the size of the wall you want to use.  In my case, both my kids have long names (13 letters each) while me and my hubby have short names (4 letters each).  So for us it worked best to have my pre-schooler's name going down and my toddler's name going across, that guaranteed that the full wall was used. 

-Based on the crossword option selected, count how many frames you need (1 for each letter) and select the color theme for each name.

-Go through different magazines or children's book and cut out the biggest letters you can find making sure they fit in the frame.   I you can't find the right letters just print some and cut them out.

-Measure the inside of the frame to make cardboard cutouts that will serve as backgrounds to the letters. 

-Try matching the cardboard and the frame colors for more appealing results.

-Arrange all frames, cardboard paper cutouts and letters on a large table to make sure you like what you see (color coordination, letter arrangement, not missing any letters, etc)

-Once you are happy with what you see start pasting the letters on the cardboard paper with the use of the photo adhesive squares.

-Add any additional decoration onto the cardboard (polka dots, framing lines, etc.) and fit the cardboard paper (with the letter) into the picture frame

-Hang onto wall