Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Free Project #2

With help from a little freckled person, I finished the second "free" project.  I had two mirrors, which were bought years ago on EBay.  They were from an old dressing table, and the mirror itself was somewhat scratched to begin with. So I figured they were the perfect guinea pigs for this project.

First, I cleaned the mirrors with Windex. I debated on whether to paint the frames, but that may have to wait for another day, as my assistant was anxious to help with the sticker part of the project, and, it was getting dangerously close to nap-time. So I decided to keep the wood frames as is.

I had a pack of stick on letters, which I originally got at AC Moore. You can get them anywhere, including Home Depot, Lowe's, Michael's, etc, and they come in all sorts of sizes and fonts.

I picked out a phrase and placed the vinyl letters on the mirror. I'm pretty sure more organized people would recommend you measure and align the letters "just so".  However, I like to live on the edge.  I just slapped them on the mirror and hoped for the best.

I taped off the edges of the mirror frame like this, so that I didn't get any paint on the frame itself, and painted the mirror with Satin White Paint. All the while my helper, insisted on guiding my hand while taping and painting - this was very helpful indeed.

Paint over stick on letters

After a 2 hour nap for my trusty side-kick, the paint felt dry. My much refreshed assistant happily removed the letters. All the while I calmly reminded him "pull gently" and "not too fast" and "steady does it". He interpreted this as "rip as hard, and fast as possible, like ripping off a band aid"...
Always have a competent assistant


Fortunately, it seems there was a method to his madness, because the letters came right off, and there were only a few tiny spots of paint that had bled under the letters, which I scraped off with a sharp knife. And, that is project number 2 completed.

I hung them in our little kitchen nook, and they look pretty cute.

For which I am happy.  :-)

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