Since there are just so many cool ideas on the site, I have been inspired to make or craft as many of the gifts on my Christmas list for others as I can. So far, the two projects I have completed have cost me under $20 each!! Yikes!! That's insane!! And as cliche as it sounds, with today's economy that is HUGE for me!
I thought I would share with you one of the gifts I made for my Aunt Laura that I am sooooo in love with! And if my last initial happened to be an "R" I just might have a hard time letting go of this, but its an H so I couldn't get away with that lol. Here's what I made and the steps I took to make a frame go from ugly to wonderful!
{Here is my inspiration for this project. I love the blue with the burlap contrast and just thought this is the perfect easy craft! I wanted to make it a little more my own, so here is what came of the inspiration plus a little of my own tweaking :) }
I found this on Pinterest but the website its originally from is positivelysplendid.com.
First I found an ugly frame at a thrift store that was normally priced $3 but it was on sale this particular day for half off, so $1.50 :)
Next, I painted the inside of the frame just to cover up the ugly red flowers. I did paint two coats and it didn't completely cover them up, but that's okay because will be covering it up with burlap :)
Then, I printed of a letter "R" in the size that would best fit the inside of the frame (I had to use size 400 which sounds crazy but that's the size I needed). I also cut a piece of burlap to fit the inside of the frame. Then, I just traced the "R" with a sharpie. Much easier then to try and paint it and it still looks great!
Then, I painted the frame a pretty blue and glued the burlap piece inside the frame.
Next, to give the frame a more rustic look I painted some black over the blue. In order to get this look I took a medium sized bulky paint brush, dabbed it in paint, and then on a dry area of paper I dabbed most of the black OFF the brush, that way there would be very little black actually going on the frame and I could control the amount of black I wanted little by little.
For the flower detail I just folded up circles of white felt. I folded small circles into half circles and then in half again and then just stacked them in alternating directions to give this really cute flower. I added a red button for the center of the flower, I loved the contrast of the red against the blue in the inspiration picture so I just thought this was the perfect touch! I also just cut out two pieces of the burlap to make the leaves, no tracing, just did a rough cut.
Once it was all dry I added a burlap bow for a hanger. (I have burlap coming out of the wazoo from our wedding this past summer).
Here is my finished product!!
Isn't it precious!! I will be doing this again very soon, it only took me a couple of hours to make and was soooo easy! I bought two of the ugly frames so I still have another frame waiting for me to beautify! And total cost for this was $1.50! Yes, you read right, one dollar and fifty cents!! I had everything to make this not including the frame so the only cost I was out was the frame itself. Thank god for thrift stores right?!
I cant wait to show you the make-up magnet board I made for my cousin! Stay tuned for the tutorial!! Happy Crafting!
