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!

Easy, Affordable, DIY Coasters

I hope everyone had a fun and safe holiday weekend.

First off, thank you all for appreciating (and commenting on) my crankiness!  And your comments totally cracked me up!  I have found my people!

I’ve always thought of myself as a pleasant, even keeled guy.  I guess I was just alarmed to find that my authorial “voice” was that of the old man who lives down the street and keeps yelling at people to “get off my lawn!”

I’ve been workin’ workin’ workin’ this weekend to get ready for the Rose Bowl  – pics tomorrow of some of my finished (well lets be honest, almost finished) projects.

In the meantime my latest tutorial has been posted over at Mod Podge Rocks.

I found what I think is a terrific, easy and affordable way to make round coasters that have enough weight to stay put when you pick up your glass.

Amy focused on the geeky, comic book aspect that I brought to it but this method would work for any kind of image, paper or fabric that appealed.  Check it out if you’re so inclined.

David

Mod Podge Rocks Table Tutorial

For those of you dropping by via Mod Podge Rocks –Welcome! and  thank you so much for checking out my (newbie) blog!

 For those of you wondering why I’m greeting people from someplace called Mod Podge Rocks I’ll explain.

 The lovely Amy – Mistress of Mod Podge – has invited me to create some tutorials to share with her readers and my first one has just been posted. 

 It’s an easy step by step on how to create this little table using parts you can pick up from any big box retailer.You can check out the full tutorial here and be sure to check out all the other cool projects Amy generously shares via her blog

 Thanks,

 David