Tutorial Tuesday! Make an awesome distressed frame! (Andrea Guest Posts)

The Guest Posts Continue!

You guys, these guest posters are uh-may-zing. I kinda feel like each one of them is kinda sorta a little piece of me. All the ladies I picked to do guest posts are all fun, quirky and down right AWE to the SOME.

I'll never forget stumbling upon Andrea's shop and being all like "ok, basically I need to clear off all my shelves in my apartment and make room for every.single.block.in.her.shop"

for reals guys. I even had Andrea whip up some custom pieces for mine and bub's new crib! BUT thats for another blog post ;) and no, you will not get it out of me. Not even tickling will work (ok, tickling will work, but please don't do that cause god thats torture--kinda weird how tickling is torture though. I mean, you are laughing the entire time--but its not a GOOD laugh its a OH GOD MAKE IT END laugh. ok moving on...)

I asked Andrea if she would ever so kindly do a DIY tutorial for you loves, and she was all like "uhh hell yeah!"

(no seriously, she was)

 and in case you've missed it on the blog, here are some fun things you should know:

• have an AMAZING giveaway going on here for some FREE homemade cupcakes delivered right to your door.

• bub and I have not killed each other yet during this move (rejoice)

take it away Andrea!

Hey all!

I'm Andrea, and I blog over at Bubblewrapp'd, and have an Etsy shop of the same name.



Soooo, while the lovely, AMAZINGLY talented Leonora is getting settled in to her new digs, I'm bringing you a DIY tutorial on how to make one of these {completely customized} chunky framed mirrors for yourself.


So without further ado...

Step 1.

Gather the players.


In my case, I am using a chunky frame {previously residing in my bedroom} that I originally picked up {unfinished} at Michael's for around $5. My mirror is going to get popped out of that black frame.

If you don't happen to have a frame on hand, you can either pick up an unfinished chunky frame from Michaels/Hobby Lobby/whatever. Orrrr... You can just get a piece of wood from Lowes/Home Depot/etc.... The hole in the middle is not necessary, so if you have a chunk of wood on hand, that will work just fine!

The mirror you can pick up at a Dollar Tree.

You're also going to need a pencil, a measuring tape {or ruler}, and paint {for your lettering or design}.

Okay, so the players are gathered...


Step 2.

Actually, there are a few parts to this step.

A. If your wood, or frame is unfinished, you''ll have to paint on your main frame color. In my case, my frame had already been painted white, so I was already good to go.

B. Decide what quote, song lyric, random thought, design, etc you want to put on your frame.

I decided on "This is the face of awesome." because then whoever looks in that mirror can say that about themselves :) and it's just funny, and we love some humor in this house.

C. Decide how tall you would like your letters or design to be.

D. Get out a ruler or measuring tape.


E. Make pencil marks at whatever measurement you've decided on for your word/design height.

F. Do the same on the other side of the frame.


Step 3

Using a ruler or some kind of straight edge, line up with the marks on both sides of the frame, and draw a light line across the frame with pencil.




Step 4.

Print out your wording/design in the size you've decided on for this project.



Step 5.

Turn your papers over, and using a pencil, color all over the backside of the printed letters/design.



Step 6.

Turn your paper right side up. Line up your words on your previously drawn lines, and trace the lettering with your pencil, or a pen. The pencil on the back side of the paper, will leave you with this.


Repeat the same method until all of your wording/design is traced onto the frame.



Step 7.

Pick your paint color, and paint the outlines using a thin paintbrush. Or, paint pens are great for this as well! But, I went with paint, and a tiny thin paintbrush this time myself.




Step 8.

Fill in the outlines.



Step 9.

Erase all remaining visible pencil marks.



Step 10.

Distress it!

This step is optional, but I wanted some distressing. So, I pulled out my "medium" grit sanding block, and went to town all over fairly lightly, but heavy on the edges.




Step 11.

Attach a hook of some sort.



Step 12.

Slip your mirror into the intended picture slot... Or, if you are using a solid piece of wood, get out some epoxy, and glue your mirror down {don't forget to let it set!}.

And finally...

Hang it up!




I hope ya'll enjoyed this project!

Thanks so much, Leonora for letting me share!

If you want check out some more of my projects, or complete randomness by me, you can find me over here.

And you can find me on Etsy here! :)