Instant art: Framed vintage painting palette

OK, this is definitely one of my favorite recent projects. My brother gave me a decrepit vintage art set he found at a thrift store.

I was actually kind of angry at him for bringing more junk into my house, and this looked like such garbage. I told him I hoped he didn't pay too much for it, and secretly wanted him to take it back home with him.

But inside was this artist's painting palette with paint pellets attached. It was unused, virtually untouched and had managed to stay intact despite being at least 50 years old. I decided it needed to be framed immediately.

I bought this cheap T-shirt frame at Michael's for $5 (regular price $9.99, but on sale B1G1). It's 13 inches square and about an inch deep. Perfect.

I found a piece of scrap fabric (an 18x18 inch sample swatch from my crazy clearance haul) to use as backing. It's a nice creamy off-white with a nubby texture. (Disregard those T pins in the photo. I tried using them to mount the palette to the backing sort of like I did in this other shadowbox, but that didn't work out.)

After ironing out the creases, I stapled the fabric to the thin cardboard backing around the edges and trimmed off the excess. Spray adhesive might have been a better option, but I'm out and I didn't want to buy more just for this project.

After my failed attempt using the T pins, I decided to use a 3M Command strip instead, as not to damage the palette. I've used them to hang things on walls before, but never considered using them to mount unusual objects inside a frame. I cut a hole in the middle of the fabric to accommodate the strip.

 And following package directions, I put one half on the backing...

and the other half on the back of the palette. After everything was secure, I put the frame back together.

It looks so expensive, doesn't it? (But it totally wasn't, of course.) I love framing random three-dimensional objects. Whether they are precious keepsakes or everyday items, they always look more important behind glass.

Enlarge and elevate tiny artwork with a shadowbox

Sometimes tiny art is hard to display. I'm a firm believer that the scale of artwork should match the scale of the space where it's hung, so unless you have tiny strips of wall, tiny pieces can get lost. A great way to give them a little more bulk is to put them inside a shadowbox.

This small 4.5" x 5.5" piece was painted by my great grandfather. I don't know much about him or his art hobby, but this painting didn't have any glass to protect it. The least I could do was take care of it properly.

I took a small scrap of gold fabric (leftover from a pillow) to use as a background.

I stapled it directly to the backing of the frame. This is an inexpensive shadowbox and the backing is just thin cardboard, so it wasn't difficult.

Then I took a T-shaped pin and put it through the fabric so I could hang the painting on it, just like I might put a nail in the wall to hang a picture. The pins are strong and this painting is very light, so it worked fine.

I love how the gold fabric and gold frame look together. Dare I say, kind of fancy? Kind of like a museum display.

But really, I think having the whole painting and frame behind glass elevates it in a way that just hanging it on the wall does not. The shadowbox is only 8" x 10"; not huge, but it's a little more substantial on a wall than the painting alone.

Butterfly shadowbox

This is a craft that brings my love of clearance shopping together with my love of shadowboxes. I decided I needed one more piece of art for the bathroom and wanted to girl it up a bit with some butterflies.

I found the shadowbox itself on the clearance rack at Target for $3.24, a deal I couldn't pass up. And I found these little butterflies at Pier 1 on clearance for a scant 28 cents! They were labeled "table confetti," but we all know I'm never going to use "table confetti." When I find items with craft potential like these for cheap, I just buy them and figure out what to do with them later.

I gave the butterflies a few coats of paint to cover up the strange butterfly-on-butterfly print. So far all the bathroom artwork has been monochromatic, but I couldn't resist adding a tiny bit of color. They are butterflies after all.

I cut a piece of pretty scrapbook paper for backing.

And I used some double-sided adhesive sticky foam on the backs of the butterflies to give them a little bit of dimension.

All in all, I think it turned out pretty well for under 5 under 4 (!) bucks and one nap time!

Wedding memories shadowbox

As #45 of my 101 list, I tasked myself to finish all previously unfinished crafts. This one was so close to being finished, I have to wonder why I didn't complete it ages ago.

I think the whole reason I wanted to make this in the first place was to show off the awesome Polaroid picture my sister-in-law Jill took just moments after we were married. Love love love this picture! One of my favorites. I'm still amazed she was able to capture such a great photo in one single shot as we were walking out!

And that's the last of the wedding crafts for a while. Promise!