Hello.
Thank you for the kind comments about the blog. I love that we can talk about decorating and organizing!
I know I have been MIA lately - I have no great reason except I just have a bunch going on. Like everyone else.
So, I thought I would share a fun little project we finished recently. Recently meaning more than a few months ago. But definitely 2015.
I have had this piece for years. Let me give you a little bit of back story:
I found this window frame a million years ago at a garage sale. It did not have a price on it, so when I asked the woman at the sale, she asked her husband who said, "That old thing? It's free" Yes please and thank you! Isn't it great how one man's junk is another frugal person's treasure?
Granted, it was pretty grimy when I found it, but I just scrubbed it down and sealed it with a water-based clear coat.
And then I filled it with "live life joyfully" - a piece of artwork that a talented friend made for me.
This came from the big house and we've had it up at the small house for the last three years.
But I was ready for a little change-out. Does that ever happen to you?
You can see the frame didn't even have glass. But I had a piece from a large picture frame that I gave to a friend.
Usually I would never hang onto something like that, but I've had this idea for a while.
Hero got a tiny glass cutting tool from his favorite store - Harbor Freight - for a few bucks and we were in business.
We just took the artwork out and measured the glass with it. Easy.
It's kind of important that you get it right the first time, since it's, you know, glass.
I stepped on one end to hold it down, the way all professionals would do. And Hero cut. The funny thing about cutting glass, it doesn't even look like anything happened. It's looks like just a scratch. But then you tap it, and your piece falls off. Carefully on the cardboard of course.
Then comes the fun part. I found a font that I thought would look just perfect called Sea Side - isn't that the best name for it?
Just printed that off in a giant font size.
Pulled out my acrylic craft paints and got to work. I just plopped the glass over the printed out message. No need to trace or anything.
Painting on the glass makes is pretty easy - You just follow exactly what is there.
Unfortunately, soon after I started, I realized it was not what I wanted at all.
So I grabbed a straight edge razor and scraped it off in about 2 seconds.
Back to the font drawing board. Cannot remember what this one is called, but after working with the other one, I knew that simple was going to be the way to go.
Sometimes it's good to mess things up so you don't have to wonder later if something else would have been better. You already know.
See how it has a drop shadow? I just painted the number in white and then shifted the paper underneath down and to the left a smidge and it created a "shadow". I painted that in black and was on my way.
Notice how the paper is crooked under the glass? Not sure how that worked out, but the final product is straight.
One thing I don't love is that I took the computer's word on the spacing between each number. If I were thinking this through a little better, I would have gotten that "1" and "4" a little more evenly spaced. Don't be like me. Get that right before being done with it. Just eyeball it - trust yourself.
I love how light and airy it looks up there. It reminds me of a transom window that would be over a front door with the address printed it on it. (I think it was actually a basement window - not nearly as romantic.)
And what does 21486 even mean?
It's our wedding date.
February 14, 1986.
