Summer Hexagon Project

Summer in the Farmer household has been in full swing. Wade and I enjoyed a glimpse of what it will be like as empty nesters a couple of weeks ago while the kids were on a ministry trip in Ohio helping a new church plant. We enjoyed it so much that when an opportunity came up for them to go to teen rally the past few days, we said, "You're going!" (Actually, they did want to go so all was good!)

The first of June I made up a list of projects I want to get done this summer. There were ten things on the list. I have completed three. I am pretty happy with that since we have been gone about four times since mid May (when our "summer" starts for us homeschoolers). Most of the items on my list entail putting things on my walls. As I mentioned almost a year ago, most of my blank walls have been already decorated in my head. I know exactly what I want to do to most of them.

The most recent project I have been working on is what I refer to as our "kid guest room." I have had people ask, "You have a kid guest room?" We do. It is a smallish bedroom that was in our house plans and is in between Elizabeth and Andrew's bedrooms. We did not have any other ideas of how to use the space and it shares Elizabeth's bathroom which is nice for when she has friends spend the night. She has called it her "office" in the past since it does adjoin her room and bathroom. Ha. We just call it the kid guest room because of its small size and location.

We have had two groups of college students stay with us in the last month or so. That was what got me motivated to do something with it - guests using it! We had four ladies stay with us in May and then just a few weeks later, we had five college men who were part of a quartet (and the piano player) stay with us. (Find out I like to prepare for guests on my post, Prepping for Guests.)

The best part about decorating this room is that I get to do WHATEVER I want. I want the room to be unisex so if we have boys or girls stay in it, it does not make them feel like they are staying in their brother or sister's room.

Last week I finished this hexagon art piece. It makes me smile.

Over a year ago, I had pinned something similar from this blog post, Repeating Hexagon Wall Art. I had wanted to recreate it ever since for a space in my house. When I was working on this wall in the kid guest room, I knew it was what I wanted to go there!

Most of what I used to make it was scraps from my past scrapbooking days. All I bought for this project was the 11.75x36 inch poster frame which cost $15.97 at Walmart. I have a roll of kraft paper I have used for wrapping gifts, to cover tables for art projects, and other various things that I used for the background to mount my hexagons. I thought about using the backside of the information insert that came in the frame which was white and would have worked well color-wise, but I did not like how flimsy it was.

I created a simple hexagon pattern on my Silhouette to cut out all my pieces. Do not worry if you do not have a die cutter like mine, you can hand cut them. Find a simple hexagon shape to print sizing it in Word or using a copier. The file below you can save to your computer and open it with your Silhouette software. Size accordingly for your project. Click on it to save and use!

HEXAGON FILE FOR THE SILHOUETTE

I sized my hexagon to fit three wide on the frame I was using. I picked similar colors from the bedding in the room concentrating on more of the reds and blues (my two favorite colors!). I made the colors go from pink to red to orange, yellow, green, and blue. That is how I also organize my scrapbook papers and clothes in my closet with purple thrown in after blue (and then I have brown, white, and black). ;)

As I cut the hexagons out, I positioned them how I wanted the colors to flow. When I had enough cut out and the colors I wanted, I started in the top left and removed the pieces and began numbering them. I had forty-nine hexagons or half hexagons for some of the corners and edges.

Using the back cover of the frame as a template to cut my kraft paper, I gently folded it in half lengthwise and made a pinch in the middle to know where the center was. Then I once again began to put the hexagons back on using the numbers on the back to help.

Once I had them all spaced evenly and how I wanted, I used scrapbook adhesive tape to start sticking them to the kraft paper. Here is the adhesive applicator I use and have had good results with for years.

If you wanted to make a quicker version of this, you could cut strips of paper in maybe 5-7 colors (like a variety of blues or greens) and just cut them as rectangles and/or squares. Search on Pinterest for "strip quilt" to get some ideas and then translate that to paper!

Have any of you been working on projects this summer that have been put off? Share with me what you have been up to in your home! And if you use my file whether for an art project or to create something else, then please share with me either sending me a link in the comments below or post the photo on our Facebook page.