Hillery's 1940s Repurposed Window Picture Frame

I have to say that this is the project that started all my crafting. I saw this done in a friend's home years back and just knew I had to have one, so I finally got one made.

If you are blessed to have one of these windows lying around, you have won half the battle. I did not. So for months I searched everywhere. One night I was raving to my friend about how much I loved her frame and she informed me she had 10 or 15 of them in her garage! So I offer to buy one from her. She seemed less then thrilled at the time, and when she called a few days later I asked her what she thought of a sale and she told me she would sell me one for the bargain price of $80.

Are you kidding me?  I would have given her the darn thing if I had had them!

After hanging up the phone I was determined to find one for less than $80.(Ugh, I still can't get over that. Especially when I had just given her a pair of never worn shoes. But whatever.) I guess you could say I became obsessed with the window so I called every salvage yard and resale shop around. Finally a very nice man (who I am sure was sick of me calling) told me of this very cool place called Habitat for Humanity Retail Store. It is all recycled home items...old wood windows to washer and dryers. This place is amazing- I recommend searching for one in your area.

So guess what? I FOUND ONE!!! For $7. Yes, you read that right. $7 fucking doll hairs.  

After a ton of thinking about how to make this into a picture frame, I decided to take the glass out and have it replaced with plexi-glass. I was nervous about the weight of the glass and with two kids around I just couldn't have the glass in good conscience. I had a sheet of plexi in the garage so I just took it to Ace and they cut it to fit the individual window frame panels for me for free...Yeah!

The next step was picking out the fabric for the back matting. That was easy since I was obsessed with Damask at the time. I found this pretty one at Michael's for $4.99/yard.

Red and gold Damask fabric, wrapped over cardboard. Glued the matted picture on and popped it in under the plexi panels, then into the window frame.

While I was there I grabbed my smaller photo mattes,a pack of tea cup hooks and some chain. I did have a 40% off coupon so I probably spent $12 at Michael's.

At this point I was so excited to put it all together. I simply glued the photos to the small photo mattes first and carefully placed them in the center of each of the window pane's "glass". After trying to fit the fabric behind the matted photos and onto the "glass", I realized I needed a backing for each square to wrap the fabric around and stick on the matted photos. I took a cardboard box and cut the window pane squares out with a razor blade. I wanted them to be snug so it would hold the plexi-glass flat and tight against the frame. Once they were cut I hot-glued the fabric onto the cardboard. I then  hot-glued the matted photo to the fabric-covered cardboard and I was finished (with the hard part at least)!

I attached the teacup hooks by screwing them into the top of the window frame and attached the chain. I just absolutely love this. It was well worth all the trouble I went through finding the frame (no thanks to my"friend". Eighty fucking dollars dude...). I could have made 4 frames for eighty fucking dollars.

Supplies:
Old wood window frame with glass panes (any size)
Photos
Mattes
Fabric
Glue gun
2 x Teacup hooks (weight appropriate)
Chain


Difficulty: 2/5
Time: 2/5
Cost: 1/5
Satisfaction: 5/5

Hillery's Chippy Paint Chalkboard

OK so chippy paint chalkboard was sooo easy! I found the idea on Pinterest:(http://makethebestofthings.blogspot.com/2011/08/cheap-elmers-glue-crackle-chalkboards.html) and I had been looking for something to do with some old kitchen cabinets that I found in the attic leftover from the people who lived here before. They were cabinets that didn't have fixtures on them and were oak with  a finished surface.

I sprayed the the front and back of the cabinet with MATTE BLACK spray paint.  I let it dry between coats only about 5 minutes.  I used 3 coats but you could still see the ridges from the wood through it. The website I found this on didn't say anything about sanding the cabinets, but that would have helped, and if I do it again I will sand them smooth first. Maybe using actual paint instead of spray paint makes a difference.

Then all around the edge and about 2 inches in (the "frame" edge of the cabinet), I rubbed a THICK coat of Elmer's school glue with my fingers.

Black matte spray paint and glue

Once that becomes tacky (about 1-2 mins) I rubbed white ACRYLIC paint over it with my fingers. It took about 2-3 minutes for it to start to dry and that is when it cracks!  I did put a rather heavy coat of white paint so the chippy look is big and deep, the less white paint and Elmer's glue you use the smaller the chips and the shallower the cracks.

Close up of chippy paint section

Best tip on this craft is knowing you can use matte black paint as a chalkboard - no need to invest in the branded, specialty "Chalkboard Paint".

Done!

I have this sitting in the corner on my kitchen counter.   use regular chalk and wash it all the time and it has held up GREAT!!!! This made me want to CHIPPY PAINT EVERYTHING. I have some picture frames I want to try next using different colors and make a wall mural with them.

Supplies:

Kitchen cabinet

Matte black spray paint

Elmer's glue
Chalk

Difficulty: 1/5
Time: 1/5
Cost: 1/5
Satisfaction: 4.5/5

Megan's Mosaic Mirror Wall Hanging

So I'd been on a kick at the local Goodwill stores buying old picture frames, popping out the pictures and re-purposing the frames, glass, etc when I saw a 2'x3' cork board for $4. I figured I'd cover it with fabric or something, anything really. So it sat in the back of my car for a good,solid month before I decided I wanted to make it a mirror. I have no mirrors in my house (except the bathroom) and I get yelled at for it all the time. I Googled "mirror mosaics" to see what I could do and saw a lot of mirrors with a large center mirror and mosaic tiles around it, which I didn't like. Then I came across a back splash done in a kitchen or bathroom or something and it was beautiful. I went to Hobby Lobby, found the tiles and bought 2 or 3 of all the different sized squares and rectangles they had. I spent about $35 and got to work that night.

Know that I have no experience making a mosaic anything. But how hard can it be, glue 'em down and grout, right? I guessed on the spacing (a little less than a quarter inch) between tiles and didn't have a pattern, just made it up as I went along, fitting squares in with a drop of glue from the glue gun and pressing them onto the cork. I tried in the beginning to keep the squares perfectly straight but that got tedious and boring. After about twenty minutes I had a problem. I was out of tiles. And only a fifth of the board was covered. $35 x 5??!!  Ahhh, crap...

The running joke the following 3 weeks was how many trips to Hobby Lobby I made during my lunch breaks. I went back 4-5 times easy. I never had enough tiles, or I had too many of one size, it was a mess. But I liked how it was turning out, and I wanted to finish it. I hate leaving things unfinished. I just couldn't force myself to drop the $70-$80 in one visit on mirror tiles. I thought about looking online to see if I could get them in bulk cheaper, but never did. So I spent 30 minutes here and there after work gluing tiles down for about 3 weeks.  It felt like it took forever. 

On my one of my last trips to Hobby Lobby I bought the small jar of mosaic grout. The grouting was messy and I didn't splurge on a trowel. I used an icing spatula I had laying around but that was too stiff, so I cut up a cardboard box into squares and used that. It worked, but it was messy and I didn't have a good way of smooshing down the grout in the spaces, so I started using my finger to rub it in.  About halfway into the grouting process, I realized I wouldn't have enough to finish.  Ahhh, crap... I got about 5/6 of the way finished and ran out.  And even worse I was making some finger swipes in the spaces and noticed they were smeared red all of a sudden. I was bleeding. I washed my hands and my fingers stung with the soap. I had dozens of "paper-cut" slashes in my finger tips from the edges of the tiles, little razor cuts all over.

So damn close

One last trip to Hobby Lobby for another jar of grout and I was finished. The grouting was easier than I expected.  You slop it on, smooth it around, let it dry, then take a wet sponge or towel and wipe over the whole thing to get the extra grout off. You have to wipe it down a LOT and then I Windexed it, which was annoying because the paper towels kept catching on the edges of the tiles and leaving bits of towel everywhere, but I managed.

I painted the frame white and was done!  And I love it. It's very different and very cheery. I'm not sure it entirely fits with my living room, but it's fun. And sometimes it just looks like a disco-ball that was rolled flat, but I'm okay with that too.

Done!

Supplies:
Assorted size mirror mosaic tiles ($2.47 a pack from Hobby Lobby)
2'x3' cork board ($4 from good will)
Glue gun
White paint
Mosaic Sanded Grout ($5 from Hobby Lobby)

Difficulty: 3/5
Time: 5/5
Cost: 5/5
Satisfaction:5/5