Frame Re-do

My hubby and I have been married for a little over 7 years. My dad gave me this wall hanging for a wedding gift. It has the Apache Wedding Blessing on it (no we're not Native American, I think he just liked the words). I actually really love what it says:

Now you will feel no rain,
for each of you with be shelter to the other.
Now you will feel no cold,
for each of you will be warmth to the other.
Now there is no loneliness for you,
for each of you will be companion to the other.
Now you are two persons,
but there is one life before you.
Go now to your dwelling place,
to enter into the days of your togetherness.
And may your days be good and long upon this earth.

Beautiful, right!? Beautiful. However, the thing was butt-ugly (no offense to my dad or to any of you who think the "before" shot is absolutely beautiful). Because of it's ugly-duckling status, it has been "dwelling" under my bed for 7 years, waiting to fulfill it's destiny. "Now, beautiful/ugly wall art, I welcome you to your new dwelling place!!" Here is the "before" pic. Look at those leaves and that light wood frame. Ugh.

Step one, buy Mod Podge (aka Glue of the Gods) & find coordinating paper scraps that you like (or in my case, I made scraps out of paper I liked).

Apply a thin layer of God-Glue (ha ha) to the frame with a paint brush. Oooooh. Ahhhhh.

Lucky for me, my paper-cutter needs a new blade. This works out great because I wanted sort of a "torn edge" sort of look.

Make sure your scraps are long enough to wrap around the side of the frame. The people at IKEA would disagree, but I definitely didn't want that yucky light wood to show on the sides.

After the whole surface of the frame was covered, I went around and folded over the edge and used the same mod podging technique. After everything was secure I went over the entire thing with mod podge. I did 2 coats & only waited a couple minutes between coats and it came out fine. Like I said, Glue of the Gods!

I then ripped off all of those icky purple leaves, and Ta-daa!!! There you have it. The "after picture isn't the best it could be because I had to close my window shutters so there wouldn't be a glare. You get the gist I'm sure. I like it. It's MUCH better than before, and it was all done with supplies I had on hand (& it's one less thing lurking under my bed). I may go back later and embellish it on the corners with some cool paper flowers. Or not. Who knows. But it's done. And I like it :) Happy weekend and happy crafting people!!! xo

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