Hi, my sweet friends!
Welcome to another month of our Int’l Bloggers Club Challenge! I am really excited this month because Christmas is around the corner and we decided to make something different. We’d love to exchange gifts, but being ourselfs in different countries and some of us having problems with customs and get packages stuck, we thought we could do a virtual gift swap. Isn’t that cool? I’m going to explain in detail how we did it, and in case you missed it you can find last month’s challenge “Halloween” and “fall” as the previous one.
Without much ado, welcome to our
Int’l Bloggers Club Gift Swap Challenge
As we were dreaming about how nice it would be to send each other Christmas gifts, Michelle from A Crafty Mix had the great idea of a virtual swap. The process would be easy, each of us had to share 3 pictures of stuff we had already at home, and the rest would vote for their favorite. Easy right?
This was the stuff I had (well, I still have it so I need to work on it to keep my declutering going) and the rest of the ladies had to vote for their favorite.
Which one do you think the winner was??
I’ll give you some time to think about it… don’t cheat looking at the picture below.
Ready?
Really?
And the winner was…
This gorgeous mirror!! Do you want to know the story behind it? I guess you said yes… A lady sent me a Facebook message saying she had seen my work and that she had an old mirror she was about to throw away, but she would prefer a new life for it instead of leaving it next to the dumpster.
You know me, of course I accept it!! I did the happy dance after hanging up the phone until I realized how in the world I could manage to bring it home.
A friend of mine offered me her car and just needed some elbow great and folding the rear seats to get it home. It was stored downstairs for weeks waiting for some inspiration, but thanks to this month’s challenge I was forced to think something.
I had an idea, I could use it for an apartment I am decorating, I talked about it in the post “decorating homes“. I envisioned it on the wall over the sofa, it had the right dimensions!
I took it again into the living room and placed it behing the sofa to start working on it. Yes, right in the living room because no way I was going to carry that upstairs into my tiny craft room.
I was taking some brushes and paint and wood filler when I heard a huge noise… I ran dowstairs while I heard my husband saying “oh no!!” Oh yes, it broke to pieces…
I asked him what happened and he said he was sitting in the sofa and not realized the mirror was there and moved the sofa “just a bit back”. WHAAATT?? How in hell can anyone not realize that huge mirror is there? Ok, he was so sorry because I had explained him some days ago my plan for the mirror and this challenge that I couldn’t get mad, I took some deep breaths and sat to think what to do now with it.
I had an idea!! And it was going to be cool!! The first thing to do was filling holes and paint the beautiful frame.
This time hubby was more concious about it, maybe I helped him a bit with my “be careful please” everytime he stood up or sat down.
The color was nice but I wanted to give it some depth to show the details, so I varnished it and let it dry completely.
Then I mixed some ordinary acrylic white paint with water, about a 1:1 ratio, and brushed it to the frame working on small sections. With a clean rug I wiped out the excess, so the white would only show in the crevices and very subtle in the frame.
The frame was done, time to work on the back which obviously survived.
The initial plan was using it as a chalkboard, so I prepared some black DIY chalk paint and gave it two coats.
Here it was, sorry for the picture but I did it at night once the girls were sleeping.
I seasoned it with chalk and then cleaned it, this way it was ready to draw on it.
The next day when I woke up I wasn’t very convinced about a big chalkboard like that. I decided to cut it but I needed some extra support to keep it straight and that the thin and long wood wouldn’t curve.
I cut some wood strips using some scraps I had on hand and glued them on the wood.
I mounted it on the frame and it fit.
I nailed the existing pieces of wood that used to support the back (with the mirror) and they still hold great.
Then I decided to use chicken wire for both sides. Sorry I don’t have any pictures of the process, hubby insisted on helping me and I totally forgot. Or should I say I was terrified thinking he could damage it? Just kidding, I was so excited using chicken wire for the first time in my life that I totally forgot.
It was easy, we used some pliers to cut the wire, and a staple gun to attach it to the back.
It is now in the apartment, in the wall between the kitchen and the living room, so the renters can use it to communicate between them or just for fun. I wrote HOME SWEET HOME to welcome the first ones, and they thank both my SIL and me along with a list of things they still need.
The apartment is so tiny I had a hard time trying to get nice pictures, but I have to say I love how it looks.
Some colorful pompons to cheer it up! You can see the tutorial and where we got ours from on this tutorial about our bunny with pompons
The stars may sound familiar too. You can check the tutorial on how to make faux metallic stars.
I used some twine to wrap a chalk and used a little clothespin to hang it. That way it won’t get lost and it’s on hand for everytime they want to use it.
Now, what do you think? Do I have to thank my husband for breaking the mirror? I think so, in fact I told him I’m happy he did it. But at the same time I make it clear it doesn’t mean I allow him to break things I’m working on.
Thanks so much for visiting and don’t forget to stop by to see what the other ladies have to share!!
If you click on the pictures below you will get their posts, have fun with them!
Have a wonderful week!
Hugs,
Pili
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That turned out beautifully Pili. Shame, your poor hubby, he must have felt terrible and the mirror would have been so difficult and probably expensive to replace. The chalk board and chicken wire combinations works really well together, now it’s functional and gorgeous too.
Yes, the mirror would have been too expensive to replace so the only option was to think something else for it.
I like the chicken wire with the chalkboard too.
Pili it looks awesome! I really love the shape of that mirror frame and I think you’ve really saved it well with the chalkboard and chicken wire, I love the look!! I bet it looks great in the apartment!
Thanks Katrin!! It really looks great there, and the tenants are using it all the time, I’m really happy!
Pili your husband breaking the mirror will give you seven years of GOOD luck! Just look at what a beautiful chalkboard you made from the frame. This is truly gorgeous, I really like the technique you used to paint the frame. And the chicken wire adds so much interest and texture to the whole look. How sweet that you put it in the apartment for the tenants to use. They have to be very impressed with it because no one else has anything like it.
The tenants are really happy with it, they wrote some quotes for a daily positive attitude and sent me a picture.
I took the pictures at night so they don’t really reflect the color, it’s gorgeous!
Pili, yes it’s a good thing your husband broke the mirror because the chalkboard coupled with the chicken wire is awesome!!!! I like the pom poms and the twine with clothespins hanging across. This is really a beautiful piece!!!
Glad you like it too! I wish I had enough walls at home so I could make one for us lol.
This is so creative! It probably would have taken me awhile to get over the broken mirror 😉 Very impressive!
Thanks so much Angie! It took me a while too, but I had to think fast because I needed to finish that apartment.
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