Craft #5

 First off, taking a picture of a mirror is not an easy thing. I'm amazed that people succeed in this at all, but I've never claimed to be the best photographer in the world so you'll have to deal with these pictures.

This is a half done project. I wan to add a 'frame' around the mirror to make it a floor mirror, but that means going to the lumber yard and, well as you may know... I avoid the lumber yard. So my mirror remains undone.

I thought I'd share the 'so far' of it anyway.

Background: You might be wondering how this project cost me nothing. Well, it's because this is an 'extra' mirror. I replaced it with a new one in the bathroom and Ralexwin refused to get rid of this one. So for months it sat in our bedroom until I ran across a mirror redo post on another blog. (The mirror was pretty beat up).

So here's what I did:

First get ready to get dirty...

Then follow these steps--

1) Lay the mirror on it's face and pull off any wooden or cardboard backing. You want to get down to the silvering on the back of the mirror.

2) You want to scrape the silvering off... this takes some serious elbow grease--imagine scrubbing your oven--but I found that the best product to use is called Sol-U-Mel by Melaleuca. It was amazing how much my work load was cut down after I used that stuff. I'm totally sold on it now.

3) You're going to want to rub off (with a green scrub or a steel scrub) down to the glass so you can see the flooring underneath.

4) Take papers from something old... like an old lame book you have sitting in the back of your closet that you picked up at a library book sale and have actually never opened and is falling apart... and mod podge the pages to the spots you've scraped away. Let dry and then mod podge over the top.

5) Re-attach all the backing and you are done (except for clean up... that's the not fun part).

I've never seen so many people stand in front of a mirror and scratch at it. It's a real conversation starter if anything.
Note: Watch for fingerprints on mirror afterward... especially if you are going to blog about it.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How-To Pretend You Work For Anthropologie

Image
The problem with Anthropologie is that they cost way too much money. WAY TOO MUCH! I mean, come on--these book boxes: source: Anthropologie Cost $68-$188! Do you have that kind of money? I don't, but you know what I do have? I have a library with a cart full of free books that no one really cares about! So guess what I did... I made my own (and then I gave them away because I really don't have anywhere to put them). Here's how. What do you think?
Read more

Altered Shoe Art: Ring Holder Shoe Tutorial

Image
This was my week two craft for So You Think You're Crafty. I placed third that week for this one. I thought you might enjoy finding out how I made it. I tried about a million different decorations before settling on one that didn't drown out my rings. I wanted them to the focal point. This is also why I went with black fabric and not something more vivid. Don't be intimidated by the lack of 101 I'm giving you. It really is a straight forward sort of project. If you know how to use a glue gun without burning yourself you can do this. Just be sure to dust off your imaginative brain space first. :) The one important thing you might be wondering is how I got the pink fabric to stick to the shoe. I really just Mod Podged it on. There are several different ways to make ring tubes that you can find online. One I saw used that colored foam paper stuff that you find in the kids craft section. I thought that might have been easier, but I had scraps o
Read more

Mutterings of a Middle-Aged Dreamer

Image
Use your words, my dear sweet soul, they are inside of you... So find them. Write, you silly girl, write so hard the world will never forget you. But does it matter if the world remembers you?  Age begins to press its hands upon your chest and the need to be remembered seems to increase with the pressure.  Stop. That's not a line of thought you're interested in pursuing.  Live in the now. Does it matter if the world remembers you if your neighbor is going hungry?  Perhaps age is merely pushing you out the door.  Go. Live in the now. 
Read more