I was FRAMED!!

Isn't it amazing how vacations and short getaways seem to take forever to arrive and then are over in a flash?

Adam and I had an amazing time in Savannah and the whole time we were there I was thinking "when can I come back???".  It's just drop-dead gorgeous there and you just can't possibly take it all in over a couple of days.  I highly recommend it. But we're back and ready to face another week of every day life.  Blessed to have a great life to come back to, that's for sure. But for the record, if someone told me I had to move tomorrow and I could go anywhere, Savannah would be on my list of places to consider.  Just saying...

I have a few projects that I completed recently and they all involved frames. The first two are not even necessarily blog-worthy. Well, maybe blog-worthy, but definitely not tutorial-worthy. This sutff was easy peasy!

Last summer I moved into a new office (my FIRST office!) and all of my co-workers in the new hall gave me an "office-warming" gift. One of these said gifts was this frame:



It's been on my desk ever since, although the picture has changed over the months. Recently I've started to think it needed something, and since I've been using fabric rosettes on a lot of my wreaths it was only natural... I think it's pretty cute now and my gray, paperwork-filled desk seriously needed some cuteness!



One recent Saturday morning I woke up before the rest of the world did (or so it seemed...) and hit a couple of yard sales. They were a bust for the most part. Mostly kids stuff, but I did find this frame for 75 cents:



I loved the design, but we don't really have any rooms in the house where a white frame would work. Cue spray paint!! I am obsessed with this color, and so is the rest of blogland. And I had plenty of it left over after working on another project, which you'll see later :) Both our master bedroom and master bath are done in robin's egg blue, beige, and chocolate brown, so this frame could work in either one. For now it's in the bedroom and I love it!


ps- how cute is that bird? Pier 1 goodie that I found at Goodwill. Score!

Ok, last but certainly not least, I took a risk with this last project. I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out, and even now that it's done I'm not 100% sold that I love it. But it was practically free, no one else in the world has one like it, and will (at least for now) fill up some blank wall space in our hall. Plus it was my first experience with Modge Podge. Modge Podge is to crafting like salt is to cooking so it was about time.

This basic principal can be used to make all kinds of different art, so pay attention! Step one: go to your favorite home improvement store (we tend to prefer the Blue one :)) and pretend that you are painting in your home and you need a lot of color samples. No one batted an eye at me, so I must have looked serious about that painting business I had waiting for me. I knew that I wanted something for our living room or hall, so I went with paint samples in all different shades of red (and orangish reds), brown, and gray. In retrospect I wish I had picked up more brown samples. Oh well! The true colors don't show up well in these pictures.

I used a 1 inch circle hole punch and went to punching while watching HGTV, naturally. I had a long frame with its original print out in the garage awaiting a yard sale, but realized I could put it to use rather than buying a new one for this project.



Gold. Ick. Nothing a little spray paint can't fix!

Ok, so I used a paint brush to apply a thin layer of Modge Podge onto the original print and then added a line of randomly-selected circles. Lather, rinse, repeat, and continue to layer lines of circles until you cover the whole print. Here's what it looked like after maybe 15 minutes or so:



Once you've covered the entire print, let the Modge Podge dry for a bit (a very technical and precise term) and then apply a thin layer of Modge Podge over the entire surface. Here's mine still wet. Don't worry, it will dry clear.



Once dry, just put it back in the frame and enjoy (or decide if you even like it!). In my case I had to spray paint the frame and clean the 1.5 years worth of hair spray off the glass since it was originally hung in my apartment bathroom pre-marriage. Here's mine in all it's glory! It's growing on me.  Also, when Adam first saw it pre-frame he said it looked "kind of 70's", but he sort of likes it now that it's on the wall.  What do you think?

I hope this reminds you to start looking at looking at home decor as something totally customizable and easy to do yourself! Thrift stores are full of pictures frames and mirrors with great details, sometimes you just have to look past the color/condition. And most importantly, I hope that after reading the cheesy title of this post that you'll still come back to my blog sometime... I'm sort of a nerd.

Linking up to Rhoda's Thrifty Treasures

AND Six Sister's Stuff















Delicately Constructed Friday

Masterpiece Monday