I started with a rather large poster frame without the plexiglass. Since it's so large (42" x 30"), I didn't want to shell out the $$$ to buy such a large piece of plexiglass. Or an oversized print. I have no idea what was in it in the first place! I need something for living room and I was contemplating getting an old window to display pictures, but that would cost money. And I would prefer something that would cost less money. I have seen picture frames with a burlap background and an antique-looking clip to hold the picture, so I thought I'd try making it on a larger scale. That way, I could swap out pictures to suit holidays/seasons/moods, whatever, without having to take the frame down, undo the backing, take out the old pictures, put in the.....well, you get the picture (hahaha, pun intended).
Cool, right? I painted the frame with chalk paint in a color called "Romance". I would love to have the job of naming paint colors. Seriously. "This brown makes me think of my favorite Starbucks latte. I shall call it Warm Latte." Now that would be a fun job.
Back to the subject at hand. I went to the fabric store for a plain piece of burlap. When I got there, I found this awesome burlap with birds on branches, dotted with little red berries. I felt its siren's call and knew I had to have it. As usual, I had my stash of store coupons with me, so I got a yard of it for $4.00. I rock.
Isn't it beautiful? After I got it home, I worried that it would be too busy with the pictures, but I decided to go ahead with it anyway. I really do love this fabric. I stretched it around the backing and duct taped it down within an inch of its life.
Then, I put it back in the frame and securely taped it in the frame. Very securely. This bad boy's not going anywhere! I didn't put mounting hardware on it, because I use Command picture strips to hang my stuff. I love Command stuff because I can move stuff around as it suits me without having to worry about covering up the holes. I like to do that a lot.
So now, I go searching for clips. I figure I'm not going to find any antique clips, at least not cheap, so I while I'm at Wal-Mart, I hit the office supply aisle, thinking I can find some there and make them look antique.
The only ones I can find are magnetic. And I'm not overly thrilled about them. Then, I spot mini-clothespins. And the light bulb goes on, so I snag them. I figure I'll glue them down. But when I start figuring how to lay them out, I realize that if I glue them down, I can only use 4x6 horizontal pictures. I'm not sure I like that. I searched the internet for some ideas and found pictures hung with clips and clothespins from wire and string. I figured I could apply the same principle to my board.
Normally, I would just take the backing off the frame and add the twine. But I really duct-taped this bad boy down. With a LOT of duct tape. More than I wanted to peel off. Since I knew the mini-clothespins and twine aren't very heavy, I decided to use my trusty Gorilla super glue. It's truly awesome stuff.
I laid out my photos so I could figure out about where I wanted to place my twine. I then measured so my twine would be evenly spaced. Using my screwdriver, I pushed the end of my twine under the frame, securing it with a drop of glue. I used an old screwdriver, not one of the good ones. When twine and burlap threads mix with super glue, it creates one heck of a mess, although sandpaper does get it off the end of the screwdriver. Eventually.
Once I got all my twine glued, I waited a few hours for it to dry, then started hanging up pictures. The beauty of the twine is I can use different-sized pictures in either horizontal or vertical, and as many or as few as I want with out leaving gaping holes.
I'm really pleased with the end result. Now I just have to dig out more pictures!
Until the next project,
Chris :)
