Saturday, July 5, 2008

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

8 comments:

Paula Clare said...

Hi Molly!
Love, love, LOVE the altered art mirror! WAY COOL! AND, in my humble opinion, you can NEVER add too much "bling"!

Anonymous said...

Girl I am so doin' that. Looks like a treasur hunt for a cool mirror is in order! Wow you are uber talented!

pickmepam said...

okay, sorry to be so lame, but what are stickles?

AnilĂș Magloire said...

Absolutely gorgeous, Molly!!!

Molly said...

Stickles are a glitter glue made by Ranger Ink. You can find them here:
http://www.rangerink.com/products/prod_decorativeglue_stickles.htm

HTH! :D

Brandi said...

LOVE LOVE LOVE this! I am totally going to make one! (In my spare time! LOL!) Thanks for sharing the instructions!

Ryzmomplus2 said...

great job Molly! Love it!

Vanessa, Florida, USA said...

Beautiful project Molly!!! I love the butterflies with Stickles :-)TFS!!!