Opposite Day - Picture Frame Makeover Tutorial

I am not  a “beach person.”  In all honesty I’m not sure I’ve been to the beach since I moved to LA.  I mean, I’ve walked by it, sure but I haven’t actually tossed a towel down or made a sand castle or anything – it’s just not my scene.

But apparently the Patchwork show tomorrow in Long Beach has put me in a fully beach state of mind and has lead to Opposite Day.

So, I was rummaging around in the thrift store looking for frames to use for my magnetic chalkboards when I came across this frame

It’s a nice frame but the minute I saw it I knew exactly what I wanted to do and it involved the beach – which seemed odd but who am I to argue with sudden flashes of vision?  And, of course, being me I had to do this project RIGHT NOW!!!

I have this habit of rummaging around at flea markets and coming home with random black and white photos.  I have no idea what I want to do with them but they capture my imagination.  Over the years I’ve developed certain “themes” in my collecting and one of them is vintage beach scenes.  I found this young lady years ago and something about her – the way she’s standing maybe – always caught my imagination.And I finally knew what I wanted to do with her.

Now usually my task is to find something old and beaten down at the thrift store and make it look better but this time around I’m taking something that’s in fine shape and making it look old and beaten down.

So I set about sanding the edges of my frame down to bare wood Then I grabbed my trusty candle and rubbed the wax along those sanded edges and top coated the whole thing with Rustoleum’s Heirloom White.  The paint won’t stick to the wax so, after the rest of it had dried I sanded away and ended up with this

Easy!

And now it was time for the details.

I did a little Google search for vintage beach bathing beauty magazine covers and downloaded a random selection and then re sized them in MSWord and made little strips the same width as the frame I Mod Podged my little collages into place and blew up my vintage photo to fit the frame.I think it suits her.

OK, now I’m off to the beach myself.  Wish me luck and, if anyone is in that area please do stop by!

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