Save Money, Save a Frame

Decorating doesn't have to be an expensive affair when it comes to artwork. Along the way, I'll share some ways that I have been able to add to my walls--although I am no interior designer! Moving has given me some new opportunities to make some stuff for my own walls. I wanted to share one that I did today that I spent less than $10.00 on!!



My dad recently picked up an old medicine cabinet that he found along the road. Yes, yes-call us trash diggers if you may, BUT not many things get me more excited than re-purposing something that was going to be headed to the land fill. I LOVE it. I get giddy about it. I spend hours thinking of how it could be turned into something beautiful. In fact, I told my dad today that I'd love to play some kind of game where you are given some random 'junk' and then make something with it. Maybe we will have to talk about that here again some time.

See how I get excited and then get off course?

SO back to the cabinet. The cabinets front had a mirror attached that was framed out by a resin frame. It took us all of 30 seconds to get it disassembled after I asked dad if I could have the frame. I brought it home. Chris looked at me like I was insane for bring yet another project into the picture. My mother-in-law saw it in the bathroom where it sat for weeks waiting for it's life to be fulfilled and she politely asked what I would be doing with it. Am I crazy? Okay, maybe a little.

Today, it came to me. I finally made a decision on it's insides. I knew the frame's ugly gold exterior would be painted a solid black. I knew that the inside wouldn't fill the entire frame as it is a traditional frame and I needed to give it a modern take so that it would fit into Aleeyah's bathroom.

Okay, so this afternoon I gathered some supplies I might need...



It was nice to have the different supplies there as I was figuring it out as I went. I ended up scaling it down to just a few supplies by time all was said and done though.

I used:

The freebee frame
1 piece of 8.5x11 glass
2 pieces of 5x7 glass
Black spray paint in gloss
3 black and white printed pictures
1 sheet of classic style rub-ons with rhinestones
8 clear thumbtacks
Double sided tape
and a small amount of glass and metal glue.

I started out with my 3 pieces of glass and frame. I moved them around to where I thought they would work out best.



Don't mind the decoration on the bigger sheet of glass. I had tested something out on the extra piece of glass before hand and liked it-so I kept it.

Then once I got the glass positioned where I wanted it, I took the rub-ons, cut them out, and then started practice placing them and the pictures on the glass (it's good practice to not permanently adhere anything down until you pre-positioned them). Once I was happy with the layout, I began rubbing on the rub-ons on the top side of the glass, starting with top and working my way down as to not handle the already rubbed areas too much. Then I used the double sided tape to adhere the photos to the glass.

Once I had everything down into place, I flipped all three pieces of glass over and using a small amount of the glass/metal glue, I glued on the plastic part of the clear thumbtacks to the back of the glass with the pointy part sticking up. I positioned them in places that would not be noticeable. For example, on the smaller sized ones, I put 2 thumbtacks spread apart, but still behind the photos. On the larger sized one-the there are 2 thumbtacks behind the photo and 2 behind the darker rub-ons.

While those were drying, I took the frame out to the garage for some spray paint time. (Remember to always use spray paint in a well ventilated area and to use short, fast spray strokes to avoid making the paint run!) 2 coats worked well for covering the frame I had.

Once all was dried, I used 2 more thumbtacks to hang the frame on the wall and then I started with the large piece of glass first and pushed each piece onto the wall while trying to put most of the pressure on the thumbtacks as they went into the wall.

I expected to be able to see the tacks at least a little bit, was pleasantly surprised to not see them at all when the frame is around the glass. Here is a view of them with the frame taken down.



And here is the final again with a few up close shots of the glass.







So do you have an old frame lying around that you aren't sure what to do with? Or have a local thrift shop that might have some good finds? There are SO many different possibilities when it comes to this craft project. Get it out, wipe the dust off, and just have fun!

Of course, if you create something-would you come back and share it with us?