Rock Art falls for love.

Over the summer holidays I've been slowly working on doing up the study so that Mr Opoes has a quiet space to work in while he's working from home. Part of brief I set myself was to create a masculine, functional and usable space that we'd both comfortable using day or night. I also wanted to add some sentimental items into the room without over doing it. One idea I had was to create a functional gallery wall so that I could incorporate something personal on the wall without it been too obvious. I also wanted to have the option of changing out some art work so that I could change the feel in the the room whenever I felt like it.

As the room reveal will be somewhat of a surprise I tried to source all the items quickly and quietly so Mr Opoes didn't get any ideas about what I was doing. Before I'd even started collecting things to place on the wall I knew I wanted to use the kids pet rocks that they created last year, I liked that when you walked into the room you would't expect to see them hanging on the wall and they would also add a little bit of colour to the monochromatic gallery wall I'm doing.

So I got to work putting it together. I purchased a black shadow box from Ikea, I used some scrapbooking cardstock I already had, grabbed some craft glue and I purchased some stick on magnets. After positioning the kid's rocks in order from eldest to youngest I made the discovery that the piece of glass needed to be removed from the frame as Mackenna's rock was too high to sit behind the glass. Now this was the first problem I encounted BUT I continued on as I knew this was going to look great.

I just loved how they looked and admittedly I wasn't looking forward to dusting them all the time so I thought a quick spray of hair spray could help me out in the long run. I proceeded to stick and glue the magnet's into place on the back of the rock's so that they would eventually stick to the cardstock.

The next step involved placing the magnets to the back of the cardstock and to do this I had marked off where I'd need to place the magnets prior to sticking the rock to the front of the cardstock. This was where my second mistake took place as I only used one magnet on the back of the cardstock for each rock. I should have used a piece of tin, spray painted it white and then attached the magnets as this would have allowed them to stay magnetised.

Now I've got a picture. The first time I had an issue with the finished piece but I stopped taking photo's after that because my rocks just would stay attached to the cardstock or the magnets. In the end I attempted to complete the art piece a dozen times before I called it a day. The picture below looks innocent enough but I ended up having the rocks fall off the cardstock onto the floor time and time again. I only stopped when the cardstock ripped and I'd have to cut another piece.

So in the end I cleaned up all the mess I'd made with the magnets and glitter. I cut another piece of cardstock and I glued an MDF word onto the cardstock. This piece of art took me five minutes, didn't require a heap of planning or things and I must say it looks good. The only negative is that my children's pet rocks will have to go somewhere else. I've got a heap of area to decorate in this house so I'm sure that next time I'll purchase a piece of tin from the hardware store and I'll have them hanging on a wall sometime soon.

What do you think? Did I do the right thing or should I have used the rocks. I'll show you the finished wall later this week as I have to get a picture developed and will hang a few more things before the wall is finished but so far it's looking masculine and I'm loving it.

Megan