My Altered Mirror Project and a Happy 4th of July!

First off, I would love to extend a Happy 4th of July from our family to all of yours! Here is hoping that you had a wonderful 4th!

Ok, now, secondly, I got many emails asking me how I did my altered mirror, so I thought that I would try to describe as best as possible.

This would be the mirror:

First, I had bought this mirror probably a year or so ago at Michael's. It is (maybe was now) made by Prove Craft. I got it on sale, so I don't know if Michael's carries it any longer.

So, first thing I did, was lay the Making Memories Paper onto the mirror, to 'see' how it would fit. When I saw that I like the striped one the best, I put on modge podge onto the frame and laid the paper down. I then used a bone folder to make sure that the paper was laying flat and had no bubbles under it.

So, after that, I cut the paper as close as I could to the frame, and also, where the mirror was, I felt it out with my scissors (where it the mirror went deeper in) and then cut a kinda x with my x-acto knife then cut out where the opening to the mirror was (this was probably clear as mud, but until I figure out how to take videos when I am making my projects, well, my clear as mud directions are gonna have to work).

Ok, so after all of the cutting, I took my Precision Sanding stuff from Basic Grey and sanded everything close to the frame. I have found this to be the best way to get a clean look to any altered project (ie cut after you glue it onto the project then use something to sand it down).

So, after that is all done, I moved onto the chipboard butterflies that we got in the kit, by Scenic Route. I used some other papers from the kit, and did the same steps (glued the butterfly down first, then cut, then sanded) as I did with the frame. I then curled the wings of the butterflies to make them a bit more 3D, as you can kind of see in the photo below.

After that, I put the stickles onto the butterflies, and allowed them to dry.

Ok, so while I am waiting for the stickles to dry (and I have marked where the one butterly will be on the mirror), I adhere my letter stickers (for this one I used the new letter flocked letter stickers from Prima). I got lucky, and it all just kinda fit nice. Ok, really lucky. It did make the mirror a little messy, but it kinda gives it a more distressed look without me having to really work for it. Here is the final photo of the quote (which I totally love, this would be the quote, not how I put the letter stickers on ;) ):

Ok, so I was still waiting for the stickles to dry (I went a bit stickle crazy), so, for once I was smart, and had put the other butterflies down where I wanted them...and I reached for my bling and also my buttons, to make a kinda trail around the frame. I don't make any pencil lines when I do this, it's just willy nilly, so no special way to do it. Here is a bit of a closeup of that:

Now, the stickles have finally dried so I adhered the butterflies on (my adhesive of choice for just about everything is Tombo Mono Liquid Adhesive...that stuff sticks like the dickens!). I felt like there was something missing, yet again, around the edge of the frame. At first I grabbed my trusty White Signo Pen, but that wasn't quite giving it the definition I wanted. Soooooo, I picked up my white puffy paint, and bam, there we go ladies and gents, it's what I wanted. But nooooo, after I finished that, I wasn't done. Nope...still felt like there was something missing...please do not ask me why, as I should have probably stopped there, but I didn't. I picked up my white stickles (basically this is just a stickles with plain white glitter in it), and added little dots, as seen in this photo:

And possibly this one:



And then, seriously, I let it dry. It was done. Finally. P H E W.

And that, that is my mirror. :D I hope that this kind of explained how I did it. It probably didn't, as writing it out about two weeks after doing it isn't the same as when I am doing it (and probably when I should be writing it out), but I hope that it helped a little to see how I did the mirror. :D You can also do this with a frame and silver leafing, if you can't find a mirror like this. Just put the silver leaving on the back of the glass of the frame and it gives it a vintage mirror look. i haven't tried it yet, but I watched Miss Martha Stewart do it and man, I am all over that the next time around I find a cool frame. :D

Ok, seriously, anyway, I am getting off now. :D Hope you all are enjoying your holiday weekend! :D

Aloha,
~Molly