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