I've always envied those crafty bloggers who can see an old piece of furniture at a garage sale or a thrift store, snag it for an unheard-of price, slap some spray paint on it and turn it into something beautiful. I don't have the knack for seeing something for what it could be. Shoot, I don't even have the knack for finding garage sales that would sell anything I'd be interested in buying! So you have to understand how big it is that I have a post for you today about something I found at a garage sale, spray painted and turned into something that I actually hung in my daughter's room.
I snagged this frame without glass at a garage sale for a quarter. I could take you down my thought process... but I know you wouldn't be interested... so I'll spare you the details....let's just say that I came to the realization that this could become a place for me to store the little clips that I put in my daughter's hair to keep her crazy hair at bay. So I gave in and went to pick up a few bottles of spray paint for projects that I've been wanting do. Since this is my first tutorial of sorts, you'll have to forgive me for not having a full supplies picture or even getting pictures on my real camera. Nonetheless, here's how it all went down:
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::Supplies::
Frame
Felted Wool (I think? Got it at the White Elephant Sale)
Turquoise Ribbon (Left over from my sister's bridal shower)
Spray Paint
Spray Glue
Heavy Paper (mine was from a cereal box I got out of the recycling)
Not Pictured: Tape, scissors, brads & a paper piercing tool |
So here are some tips for the rookie crafter/spray painter
- When you wisely choose to cover the driveway before you paint, be sure that the cardboard (or whatever you use as a covering) is large enough and doesn't have holes in it.
- Try not to paint on a day where the high temperature is at the lowest in the range of good spray painting temperatures. Oops!
Anyway, after spraying my first coat on the frame, I started on the rest of the project. I cut a piece of heavy paper to the size of the frame. This was important to keep the felt from being too flimsy inside the frame. I then cut the felt to just a bit larger than the paper and attached the felt to the paper with spray glue. (Side note:
Spray glue is one of those things that you never really thought to buy, but once you have it, you find ways to use it on everything. Be warned!)
Next, I measured out where I would want the ribbons to go. If I had this to do over again, I would have temporarily taped them in place to avoid flipping them back and forth during the next step to make sure the placement was right.
In the end, I did wind up putting more ribbon toward the outer corners, but this is how it started. Next, I began taping the pieces in place. It is important to have them well taped because this will help anchor the ribbons once you add the weight of the clips. I used clear tape, but I suppose you could use anything. It doesn't look pretty, but really, you won't have to look at it... and honestly, I wasn't really into putting that much time into this project.
I placed the felt-covered board in the frame and was pretty happy with the results. You can tell by the picture where I did end up adding extra ribbon in the outer corners.
Now the last step you won't see until the final product picture, and that is the addition of buttons/brads/grommets. I realized that in order to add anything with weight to the ribbons, they would need to be secured to the board on the front for stability. I chose to add some of my Stampin' Up!
mini brads with my
paper piercing tool, because that is what I had. Feel free to use an ice pick or pen to punch the holes if you want... or to add buttons instead of brads. The choice is really yours and what you have lying around at the time. I simply pierced through the ribbon everywhere it made an "X" with another ribbon and then placed a brad through the hole. Done!
Here is the finished project, hanging on the wall with some clips on it. If you look close enough, you can see why you should spray paint on warmer rather than cooler days... but no biggie here! I am pretty pleased with how it turned out.
