Never Settle For Just Plain

A new unfinished frame

Ever wander through a store and stumble on the craft department? I don't just mean what you find at Hobby Lobby, Michael's, JoAnns's or A.C. Moore, I've noticed that stores like Target and Walmart are carrying some of these same items. Paints, brushes and even wood frames, birdhouses all at varying prices. The wooden frame shown here was $1 at Walmart. It is about the same price at Michaels.

Here is the finished frame

A dollar? Well, you gotta get that, right? So you get a frame ... what do you do with it? I know that I have talked about this but I feel that each project, no matter the cost of the platform, be it a birdhouse, tray, platter or picture frame, presents a wonderful opportunity to think outside of the box. That is what prompted me to try this project.

Detail of a Crazy Quilt Frame

Since I started creating a variety of items using a "crazy quilt" design where I painted fabrics just as you might see on a fabric created quilt, I painted these items that seemed to be a hit. I won an award from DecoArt for my original "crazy quilt" birdhouse prompting me to try other that sold well on my former Etsy store.

I don't know about you, but finishing a wooden frame, either with a stain or a color didn't offer much of a challenge. As you can see here, the same frame painted is totally different. 

Right now, let me point out that it can a tedious process. Here's why:

First you have to select base colors of your fabrics. I used six (6) base colors. They were used at least twice on the frame. Since I wanted this to be a holiday frame, I decided to choose colors that would be found on Christmas wrapping paper.

Once the base "fabric" color is painted then each color would have its own, unique pattern. As you can see in the detail, these patterns again are similar to patterns would find on Christmas wrap. And let me tell you when you finish some patterns you are so very happy.

Even the back must be painted - here I used
a solid color

To complete the effect, I use a golden ink pen that you can paint on acrylic paints to create stitches, the final touch for my Crazy Quilt frame. This takes between one to two hours. You may not need to do this but "stitching" the fabrics together in paints add a final finishing touch.

To be honest, it is pretty easy to do. But remember it also takes a lot of time. I recommend you work on several items at the same time as you must allow the paint to dry since each painted fabric has the same design. It is too easy to smear paint used on one side as you work on another. Trust me, I know all about this! Its a pretty good thing acrylics dry quickly. It is relatively easy to repair or recreate but being careful saves having to waste time doing this exact thing. Go ahead try it. Since most of you already have the paints and brushes it's a small cost to experiment with a new style.

Thank you for reading my blog. Please read some of the earlier blogs. I cover a wide variety of crafts, books, movies and more ... all items that depended on someone's design.