As you’ll see here, it’s no secret that I’m kind of obsessed with Minted’s beautiful holiday cards, but did you know that I also have an equal obsession with their custom photo art?! Well, now I finally have a piece to hang in our own home! I couldn’t love it any more than I do!! I’m so excited to share it with you in this post! I think it will get your creative juices flowing.
Please note: There was originally a link to a giveaway in this post – I have removed it because it’s now expired and no longer relevant.
Disclosure: Some links in this post are affiliate/referral links. Please click here for further explanation.
MY FAVORITE HEART COLLAGE
I’m a fan of all the photo art at Minted, but in particular, I have “visited” the Heart Collage shown below about a zillion times. I have gone to order it about a zillion times, too, but I’ve always gotten hung up on where I want to hang it and how big I want it to be. I am still going to order that beauty one day when I finally make up my freakin’ mind!
I love how you can display all kinds of great pictures to help you remember all of life’s most special moments (in the shape of a heart, no less – have I died and gone to Heaven?), and yet it still looks nice and neat on your wall. You can order one as small as 8 x 8 to as large as 44 x 44, framed or unframed. And in recent weeks (I know this because I “visit” often, let’s remember), they added all kinds of new frame options! I almost fainted when I saw the reclaimed barn wood (shown below) – maybe it’s the Minnesota girl in me, but I’ve always loved a rustic style, and now my favorite print can arrive at my house, all ready to be hung, framed in reclaimed barn wood?!
This is too good to be true.
You can bet your bippy that one day I will be sharing a post about the Heart Collage that I will one day finally buy, too! :)
MY OTHER FAVORITE – A YEAR IN MY LIFE COLLAGE
The other print I liked to “visit” was the A Year in My Life Collage, as shown below. Just as I kept changing my mind about the Heart Collage, though, I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to do with this collage either! (What is wrong with me?! I’m actually a very decisive person, believe it or not!)
Perhaps it’s because there are so many great choices!
– It’s available in sizes as small as 5 x 7 to as large as 18 x 24.
– There are also various framing options available, or you can order the print unframed.
– The text (as I discuss below) is customizable.
Some ideas I considered for the above collage:
One For Each Year?
I liked the idea of creating one each year and hanging them down our hallway, but I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by the thought of going back and “catching up” 14 years since we got married! (But if you are newlyweds or new parents, what a great idea!!!)
Highlight “Special” Years Only?
So then I thought maybe I’d design one for some “special” years (even though all of our years are special!). Perhaps I’d highlight the years each of our four girls were born. But one daughter was born in November, and that threw me for a loop – should I actually do one for the following year, then, since she didn’t arrive until her birth year was almost over? These are big decisions, you know.
IMPORTANT: YOU CAN CHANGE THE TEXT!!!
As I was sorting through these earth-shattering issues in my mind, I decided to try messing around with the collage to see how it worked… and then I discovered the solution:
YOU CAN ALTER THE TEXT, PEOPLE!
Let me repeat that.
YOU CAN ALTER THE TEXT!!!
So once I realized I didn’t have to type in a YEAR, the options were suddenly endless. (Great! Even more choices for me to sort through!)
One for Each Season?
I thought long and hard about creating a collection of four framed prints – winter, spring, summer, and autumn (by the way, these words looked really beautiful with the calligraphy-style font Minted recommends – I tested it out!). I could either hang the four prints together, or (more likely) I could switch them out as the seasons changed. I thought it would be so fun to hang the “new” print each time we changed our decorations for the next holiday – so the kids could see pictures of their Halloween costumes over the years in the fall or times spent on the lakes up North in the summer.
I still might go back and do this (I really like the idea!), but with my ridiculous indecision, I finally took a few baby steps and placed an order for a single print! I figured I had to start somewhere!!
Drumroll please…
I FINALLY chose this 18 x 24 print, framed in reclaimed barn wood. I customized the text as shown in detail below.
FIND JOY IN EVERY DAY
Ultimately, I decided to compile some pictures in the collage that simply conjured up happiness. While we have countless pictures displayed all over our house (see the beautiful canvas wall gallery in our entryway here), most of these pictures were taken when we “tried” to take good pictures. Maybe we’re on the beach at sunset. Our clothes typically coordinate. Everyone is smiling at the camera (even though they might possibly be cold or tired or hungry – or all of the above).
While I adore these amazing pictures we’re so lucky to have, there are other snapshots of less “perfect” moments that don’t typically get framed because they aren’t as pretty. Yet those pictures are the ones that actually capture what our lives are really like on a typical day.
So I poured through our photos, and I found some that simply make us smile. I want this collage to remind us to find happiness in the ordinary day – every day. I hope this helps teach my girls to seek out joy in the smallest moments and show them that life can be memorable even when we’re doing the most basic things like this:
– Catching a fish (for the first time).
– Playing on the beach. (The photo shown highlights the time I held my youngest daughter at the beach on our first vacation as a “complete family” while my older three girls played in the ocean in the background.)
– Celebrating “half birthdays” with a half cake. (Yes, we do that. The kids love it!) :)
– Sledding in the South even when the grass is still visible! Not much can beat the excitement that comes with getting even the smallest amount of snow here!
There’s the reclaimed barn wood frame I was telling you about… it’s even more beautiful in person!
The font (called “Bombshell Pro”) that Minted recommends as the default font looks much like handwritten calligraphy. I think it’s perfect myself.
I played around with various sayings that were similar, but I ended up using “find joy in every day” in part because I liked how it looked visually as the letters looped up around one another without overlapping.
I hung our print in our mudroom so we see it constantly. It’s the last thing we see on our way out…
… and it’s the first thing to greet us when we return home.
By the way, you can view our mudroom renovation here – it has changed my life!!
I hung it low enough so the kids could easily look at it. It makes everybody smile as we remember some of the good times we’ve shared!
Side note: Can you see a glimpse of that fun chalk wall on the left? Get a better view of it here in this mudroom renovation post where I show you how we took a cluttered closet under our stairs and turned it into that handy, functional space you can see below!
Customize Your Text – Options are Endless!
While I chose a “Happiness” theme, you could use any text. Some other wording ideas for your collage:
– A city/destination. Feature pictures from that place/vacation.
– A date. Feature pictures from a wedding, party, anniversary, etc.
– A last name. Feature family pictures. (This would make a great gift!)
– “We love Grandma & Grandpa”. Feature pictures of the grandkids. (Another great gift!)
– Mark a birthday or anniversary (“40 memorable years”). Feature pictures over the years.
– A favorite quote or saying. Feature pictures that illustrate the meaning behind the words.
I hope after reading this, you are feeling inspired to create some special wall art for your own home, too!
If you’d like to keep up with me and my blog, please follow along via Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, or you can sign up for my monthly newsletter in the footer of my site! :)
