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[brokenblossom.livejournal.com]

hellooo there, I've been lurking a little while, but not posted till now, due to lack of imagehosting if nothing else! enjoying all the fun and creative ideas I've seen here, lots of great ideas which have had me out running to my local craft emporiums :-)

anyway, here's something I made a while back (and it's the first time I've tried to do an lj cut, so don't shoot me if I get it wrong the first time, please!)





the brand of face powder i use has a 2" round mirror in the lid, and I always save these once I'm through w/ the powder, to use somehow or another. I'd made a papier maché frame for one for a friends flat-warming present, and wanted to decorate one for my sister, who has more mirrors than Versailles. I got the idea for this one after visiting an art gallery exhibition of works produced by kids who'd had an artist come into their school to help out, and one of the things done was to try and reproduce the look of ornate gold frames you get around old masters, using everyday bits and pieces, like pasta shapes glued to cardboard, and painted over w/ gold paint. I took this idea, and made it a little more jokey.

Cut three circles from cardboard, one large for the back/base, and two smaller ones, each the same size, for the inner circle you can see in the picture. From each of these inner circles I cut a hole in the centre the size of the mirror. Glued the mirror into the centre of the larger circle, and glued down the first of the smaller circles, fitting the hole around the mirror. This put the surface of the second circle flush w/ that of the mirror, but I wanted it a little higher, so the mirror would look "deeper" set in the frame, so glued the other smaller circle exactly on top of its twin, already glued down. I left a while in between each gluing down for them to dry.

Now was the fun part, to start adding texture! For the outer border, I just soaked some wool in pva glue, and positioned it around the cardboard in a wiggly pattern. Sticky fingers :-) I glued a circle of felt w/ a mirror sized hole cut out onto the inner circle(which I'd earlier used as a template for the felt - good idea to plan ahead!), and made an outer-ring border on top of that with some fairly loose weave cross stitch fabric(think it's called aida? not sure). On top of this, I went around its ring, gluing down alternating strips of rick rack and a closer weave aida. Glued buttons of various sizes on top of each little strip of aida. I did wait in between gluings for things to dry, or I'd have had a slippery sticky mess! The inner ring I zig zagged w/ paperclips in a star shape around the central mirror, and glued down a sequin in each of the 5 points.

When all was dried nice and firmly, I covered up the mirror w/ a round piece of cardboard, and let rip w/ the gold aerosol spray!! Gave it a few coats, and when those were dry, gave it a lick o' varnish, and hey presto! All done.

It's all a bit wonky, but hey, it was my first attempt :-) The roundness and the goldness of it made it look more like an inca/aztec gold plaque of the sun or something than a fancy picture frame, I kind of deviated from that a little, but it's a very versatile kinda thing. Plenty of cheap items w/ interesting textures to build up into a faux classy art gallery frame with enough gold paint, pva glue, and patient.



Hope this appeals to people, and hello all! ~waves~