upcycled frames

I moved classrooms this year and am in a gigantic brown, dull, and sad looking room. So I have been trying to add color and fun prints to liven things up. I also wanted to put up some framed pictures, but didn't want to use the plain black frames I had. So I decided to use those frames and make them look pretty and new.

With the first frame I decided to use the spray paint I bought for a totally failed craft. I used masking tape to make stripes. After that I took it outside and started spray painting.

I let it totally dry overnight and took the tape off. Total fail.

I didn't want to just give up yet, so I decided to take it back out and spray paint the entire thing. If it came out terribly, at least I tried since I wasn't going to use it the way it was.

I love that the first coat of paint bubbled and showed the stripes. A total accident, but I think it looks pretty cool!

The second frame I decided I would do something I had done before, but with fabric instead. A long time ago a friend taught me how to cover boring bracelets with strips of fun scrapbooking paper and Mod Podge. I did something similar with frames for my sisters bridal shower, and then again with ornaments last Christmas. (Annoyingly enough as I look back through my blog I didn't blog about any of these. Too bad because those Christmas ornaments were pretty awesome!)

Anyways. Here are all the supplies you will need for the fabric (or paper) covered frame.

I measured about how long the strips should be and cut up a bunch of strips. You want it to go around all of the parts you would see. If you are using paper, cut the strips a little bit thinner because they aren't as pliable as fabric.

Once you're ready you will start by putting some of the Mod Poge over the first part you will cover, including the back, cover with fabric, and then go over it again with more Mod Poge.

You continue this, overlapping the fabric as you go. When you get to the corner, the best way I found to cover it was to do a lot of overlapping instead of cutting the fabric to perfectly go around the corner. (That's the trickiest part of the whole process.) Once you're all done either lay it down on whatever you used as a floor cover, or hang it where it can dry easily.

I don't mind that the black frame is showing through the fabric, but it could have been avoided if I had known that would happen. If you use a light colored fabric like I did and DON"T want the frame to show through you could paint the frame white, go back and do a second layer of fabric, or just deal with it. If you use paper, this won't happen because the paper is thicker, even if it's white or light colored paper.

Now I just need to find a place to put my new frames!