Dry Erase Altered Frame

I am getting in just under the wire to make my post for Wednesday!  I have had a busy day today.  I went to several antique shops and picked up some great little finds (I will post those pictures later).  My son was away for the first half of this summer and he came back today, so I spend some quality time visiting with him.

Anyway, for this post, I decided to take a cheap $5 Wal-Mart frame and see what I could do with it.  I gathered some materials and decided that I would antique the frame and add a piece of scrapbook paper and use the glass as a dry erase board for quick messages.

This thought came to me yesterday when I was erasing a plate that I keep in my kitchen that I use as a dry erase "Menu".   (I will post pictures of that later, too).

Anyway, here are pictures of the process.

I gathered my supplies.  Scrapbook paper for the background, Vaseline (any petroleum jelly should do) and Q-tips for dabbing the frame in certain areas, paint, my handy-dandy paper cutter, twine, embellishments, a paint brush and a sponge brush.

First, I took the glass and the paper out of the frame.  I don't mind if the paint gets on the inside of the frame that no one will see, but I didn't want it on the glass.  I also used the paper inside of the frame to cut the scrapbook paper to the right size.  

I daubed the Vaseline on the frame very strategically in spots where I thought the paint would have chipped if it really was an antique frame.  Then I applied the paint DIRECTLY to my sponge....not to the frame itself, and I daubed the sponge onto the frame (do not wipe it, you will smear the Vaseline).

I put a good coat on and then I waited for it to dry.

If the paint didn't cover some of the cracks, I thought that 

was okay, because it only added to the charm.

After the paint dried, I used a paper towel to GENTLY wipe the frame.  

The areas with the Vaseline underneath the paint wiped off, leaving behind the

frame.  It looks like the paint actually chipped off.

I wiped a line of the Vaseline down the frame on each side, so you can see where the 

dark lines are on the frames (making it look like it was more dimensional).

The frame I got had a little gold on it and I didn't want the gold to show through (because I wanted it to look like a wooden frame), so I used a second color to touch up some of the areas that had gold showing through.  I touched the frame with the blue and then just wiped it a little so it would stand out too much.

I used a small paintbrush so I could control the paint better.

You can see where I added the blue to this corner.

Here is the frame after all of the blue has been added.

It looked a little plain, so I added a little embellishment across the top.

Here it is with the embellishment.

Tell me what you think.

Hope you enjoyed this post.

Maybe it will inspire you.

Until next time, be blessed.

:-) Tonya

* P.S. - I linked this post up to House of Hepworths #108 and The Shabby Nest 

and Funky Junk Interiors.

Chalkboard Decor

Today's post is about the refinishing of a chalkboard craft that I did almost 2 years ago.  When my husband and I got married, we had the song, "Everything" by Michael Buble' at our Reception.  It was one of our favorite songs.  In an effort to keep that romance alive, I took an old picture that I was planning to put in a yard sale and turned it into a chalkboard and wrote some of the lines of the song on the chalkboard.

I put about 3 coats of Rust-Oleum chalkboard paint on the glass (letting it dry in between each coat).

While the glass was out of the frame, I painted the actual frame and rubbed the paint on to give it an aged look.  I wiped paint off in areas so I could see the frame (to make it look like it was chipping off).

After the frame and the glass dried, I put it back together and used real chalk to write on the board.

The problem with using real chalk if you hang your chalkboard in the bathroom, is the steam from the shower.  I happened to hang my piece in the bathroom.  It continued to fade and I would have to retouch it over and over.

Finally, I decided that I would make the "chalk" permanent.  I went to my local craft store to find a chalk pen.  They didn't have one, but they did have a Terra Cotta pen that I thought I could use as a great substitute.

I thought this would work out, but it took forever!!!  I had to keep "pumping" the pen and wiping it off (probably because I had to write on top of the chalk and it was getting "gunked up").

You can see here how I couldn't do one full letter without stopping.

Here is a picture of it halfway completed so you can see the difference.

Here it is completed.  Now when I hang it back up in the bathroom, it shouldn't fade.

No more retouches (hopefully)!

Hope you are inspired to make a "romantic" 

piece of "art" to hang up!

Until next time, be blessed!

:-) Tonya

* P.S. - I linked this post to The Winthrop Chronicles.