Altered Wooden Frames

Hi everyone!  Hope your day is going great.  Mine has been busy, to say the least, but busy is always great.

Today I am sharing a project that is near and dear to my heart.  I absolutely love dogs (and cats...and all animals, in general, lol!) and I made these special, altered wooden frames as gifts for my cousin who shares my love in all things furry.

These were made as a set of three to be hung side by side.  My cousin, John, is a bachelor (an "eligible" bachelor, by the way) and has an outdoor theme in his home, so I grabbed a paper stack dedicated to our furry friends entitled, The Pets Stack, by Die Cuts With a View, and chose my background papers accordingly.  These frames feature my cousin's furry family (from left to right), Jessie, Dagny and Polly.  Aren't they adorable?

I began this process with three raw wood frames that I found in the clearance bin at Michael's for a dollar each.  Before I did anything else, I stained the front and sides with wood stain.  Once the stain dried, I turned the frame upside down, laid it on top of the 12 x 12 patterned paper, and traced the inside opening.  I then cut the paper to fit.  In order to get good adhesion to the frame, I grabbed my Mod Podge, coated the entire front of the frame, and applied my patterned paper.  I then smoothed it out very carefully to avoid any air bubbles, much the way you would when wallpapering. 

At this point I borrowed my husband's file and rasp from his toolbox and began to rough up the edges all around the inside and outside of the frames.  This added a rustic feel, as well as filed off any paper hanging over the edges.  Once I had it adequately distressed, I coated the edges with a bit more Mod Podge to seal them, leaving the face of the frame clean.

This is where the fun began!  I tied twine around the frames in various places and attached Tim Holtz corners with hot glue.  My husband very kindly drilled holes through the frames and attached the three knobs I had found on clearance at Hobby Lobby.  He was careful to countersink the hardware on the back of the frame so it would lie flat against the wall.  From there, I inked all of the edges, inside and out, as well as inking the twine here and there to add a bit of age.

Around each knob I hung Tim Holtz charms, being careful to choose the perfect statement unique to each dog.  In this case, Dagny's charm says "cherish".  I then opened my bin of silk flowers, dug out some acorns I had found on a nature walk one day and, with glue gun in hand, had the time of my life decorating the frames!  Incidentally, my husband nervously watched over me, making sure I didn't make them too girlie, lol!

The Milk Bones on each frame are real Milk Bones with a coat of Mod Podge over top and inked with various Tim Holtz inks until they looked perfectly toasted.  I probably could have toasted them in the oven, lol!

Jessie's frame has an "inspire" charm hanging from her knob.  She's also got little acorns here and there.  The twine on this frame is wound around the frame vertically.

The knob and hanging charm on Polly's frame say "destiny" and are placed on the opposite side.  As you can see below, the twine was actually wrapped in an "x" pattern through the center and around the other side.

I used Rub 'n Buff  Metallic Finish to adjust the patina of the metal knobs so they would more closely  blend together.  The corkscrew twine was made by tightly wrapping it around a skewer and heating it in my oven at 325 degrees for about 25 minutes.

I love the various flowers, berries and leaves, with acorns mixed in here and there--it's all so earthy and gives these frames a true outdoor feel.

And, the Tim Holtz corners not only serve a decorative purpose, but also further secure the paper to the frame on each corner.

Last, but certainly not least, these frames did not come with glass, so my husband was kind enough to search through his stash of plexiglass and cut three pieces to fit each one.  I used glazing points to snug up the plexi and sealed the edges with hot glue.

Well, that just about does it for this project.  I hope you enjoyed my altered wooden frames.  I'll be back again soon with another project!

Merilee

Mixed Media Art on Canvas

Hi Everyone!  Hope your Sunday is bright and cheery.  It is rainy and dreary here in Atlanta, but the temperatures are wonderful--it's 63 degrees and I'm loving that, lol!  Here's something to brighten up your day if you are having the same weather as us.

Today's project carries on the new baby theme.  After making the photo frames for the big brother and big sisters of my newest granddaughter, Baby Sissy needed something special for her room, too!  So I created this mixed media art on canvas, which was made using my Cricut Expression and Straight From the Nest cartridge.  There are several other cartridges that have various types of birds and bird cages, but the bird on this particular cartridge very closely matched the birds found in Baby Sissy's bedding, so that's why it was chosen over the others.

I began this project by painting the sides of a 12x12 canvas brown and adding brown and pink polka dot ribbon over top.  I then covered the canvas with decoupage and added my background paper.  After that dried, I covered the top of the paper with two more coats of decoupage:  the first coat painted on with a brush in a vertical direction, and the second in a horizontal direction, to create the linen effect you see below.  Before it dried, I added the little birds in each corner which were cut with my Martha Stewart corner punch...they were just too cute and I couldn't pass up the chance to use them in this application, lol!  :o}

My daughter did Baby Sissy's nursery in brown and pink with a bird theme, so I cut this little bird twice--once on brown cardstock and then again on white, glittered cardstock, and then inked the edges in brown.  The wing was fussy cut from brown and white patterned paper that I dug out of my scrap bin.  I don't know about you, but I've got so many scraps and I'm always looking for a way to use them!  The eye is simply a dot from my hole punch dotted with my white opaque pen and covered with a drop of Glossy Accents.  I could have used a button or a brad or even some bling to create the eye, as well.  I cut the perch away from the birdcage and embossed it with my Big Kick and herringbone embossing folder to draw the eye inward.

The cage itself was cut twice, once from brown cardstock and once again from this pink hologram cardstock.  I found this hologram cardstock at Walmart and I chose it to give an overall metallic feel to the birdcage.  I'm happy to report that this paper cuts like butter on my Cricut machine!

Since there was no shadow feature for this cage, when I mounted the layers, I slightly offset the upper layer to the right to cast a bit of a shadow of my own.  I originally tried cutting the brown layer slightly larger, which has worked for me in the past with other images; however, this particular birdcage is quite intricate, so the proportions simply didn't match up enough to make sense to the eye.

Now, any of you who know me know that I can't resist making my projects dimensional--especially when they are for children.  For this project, I actually cut the cage apart in three sections as you can see above.  I popped up each part of the cage, including the shadow beneath, and then popped up the mid-section above that.  It wasn't easy, though...all of those rungs on the cage needed very thin cuts of foam tape, so I had quite a bit of hand cutting to do.  However, it was well worth the extra time and effort.  I think it made quite a difference in the overall depth of the project.

I used flat-back pearls placed in various areas to add a bit of bling that accents the cage.  I also used my Crop-A-Dile III-Main Squeeze, with the tag die cutting plate, to cut this tiny tag from brown cardstock.  I added the baby's monogram (her name is Carys) with a sticker, and highlighted the letter, as well as dotted around the edges, with my opaque pen.  Then I covered the entire surface with Glossy Accents.  After allowing it to dry, I added a bit of pink ribbon.

The project would have been bare without adding lots of pretty flowers.  There are silk flowers, ribbon flowers, paper flowers, glittered leaves, as well as shiny, metallic leaves, and lots of brown and white polka dot ribbon.  I always use my glue gun for this type of thing.  To accent them a bit, I pulled off the wire stems of some of the flowers and curled them up real tight to make the spirals you see here and there.

This project was time consuming, but I loved every minute of it and it looks darling on Baby Sissy's bedroom wall!

I hope you enjoyed this project and I'll be back again soon with something new.  Have a great weekend!

Merilee