DIY: Photograph Art

I am just going to tell everyone, right now, when I get an idea in my brain it is really hard to extinguish. I mean really hard. So for the next two projects I will be sharing I had a dilemna; I had the idea in my head and then I had limitations making it extremely difficult to bring the idea to reality. For the first project I wanted to do a window repurposing which is a project growing in popularity And the second project was a frame that I bought from a thrift store which was simple and had a quote from Winne the Pooh, I think? I am going to take you through my process and hurdles of each first the frame.

Project 1: Repurposing Window Picture Frame



Here is the window being displayed at the engagement party
Photo: Heather Schwartz HMS Photography

My second project took a little while to even start. I had no idea where to buy an old window until I realized I had the perfect store, the Habitat for Humanity Restore (if you haven't heard of their mission look them up!). I took along my little sister and walked up and down the window aisle about 4 times. I was about to give up when I told her I wanted to walk down one more time (if you ever go shopping with me you will know how undecisive I am and how long it takes me to shop so I always feel bad for who accompanies me). But then there it was! The perfect window and not just one but TWO. One for me and one for the engagement party. It wasn't what I had initially been looking for. The projects I had seen and got inspiration from had always had six panes (2 rows and 3 columns). My find on the other hand was 5 straight panes across but the windows looked brand new and were a steal! ($5 each). I bought both and I was giddy the entire way home, ask my sister, I just kept repeating "I'm so happy" all night!

Then my next dilemna set in. I had NO idea how I wanted to design the window. I knew I wanted to put pictures in each pane but I honestly had no "flame". I had seen a tutorial on Pinterest for using Vaseline to distress paint (Shanty-2-Chic Tutorial) but I also didn't know if this was right for my project. That was until I was at work singing to myself....."There might be a little dust on the bottle...but it's one of those things that gets sweeter with time". And then THERE was the flame I needed. I was completely inspired by the lyrics.

I than realized that the distressing project was perfect to give the frame the "timed" look. So I got out the vaseline and followed the great tutorial.

My base coat. Im using our kitchen table "legs" our table is not
actually bolted on at this point.

I painted edges of the frames a deep brown. Than I put vaseline on the edges where I wanted the paint to "chip". I than painted the whole frame an off-white and waited 12 hours for it to completely dry.

Using sand paper to distress the edges of the window.

I than used sandpaper to rough up the edges and easily remove the white paint. It some areas I used the sandpaper to even remove the brown base coat to reveal the original wood.

The clock I bought at the
thrift store to steal the
clock movement.

After painting my next step was adding the clock which was my focus of the project. I bought a clock and removed the clock movement.

My initial idea was to drill a hole in the outer frame. I soon realized the shaft was not long enough to go through the frame of the window. I knew I would be completely disappointed in myself if I didn't figure out a way to add the clock-it makes the whole idea come together. Finally I thought putting the clock in the center window pane and only have 4 photos to showcase. Honestly, it barely worked. I glued my scrapbook paper to a piece of cardboard the size of the pane. I than made a hole in the center of the cardboard for the clock shaft. I added the hour minute and second hand. The clock movement was too thick though so the cardboard was 1/8th of an inch higher than the frame when placed in the center pane. I just hot glued all the edges down.

The materials needed to make the clock center.

Than I added the photos and scrapbook paper to the remaining panes. I used cardboard pieces behind each of the photos so that they had a little more depth.

Giving the photos more depth by adding carboard.

My final project was adding the quote. I used puffy paint on wax paper to write the quote out which I typed in a word program with my prefered font. I waited for the paint to dry and than peeled the letters place them on the frame and when I was happy with the placement used my "mod podge" to glue them in place.

Heres the final product of my hard work:

Do you have an old window lying around? Or another project you plan on repurposing? Let me know how it goes! It is always inspiring to see people reuse old items to makes something beautiful for their home or as a gift. That is real HeART Work :)