Spring Frame

Hey!  It's the weekend and I'm done with my blogging tips series.  I kinda miss it because I knew exactly what I was going to do ahead of time.  Instead, I will give you an early look at a project I'm entering in the competition at Living With Lindsay's $5 Challenge.  The "challenge," if you are not familiar, is using a maximum of $5 worth of items from the Dollar Store.  This is where my project started:

 One dragonfly wind chime and one 5"x 7" plastic frame.

I removed the wire hanger, chimes and strings from the pieces and laid them out in a test pattern.  Next I used hot glue to put the pieces together.

I built up the glue to get added dimension.  I just put some dabs on, waited a few seconds and layered some more.  You can see stringy glue residue, I'm not very glue gun savvy, but you can't see it from the front.

You can see a little on the above photo how there is some space between the disks.  If you look at my first test layout, I was going to make a horizontal frame, but changed my mind.  One thing I did do originally was glue the dragonfly on too far back.  After I started painting, I decided to change it so pulled it off and re-glued it closer to the glass.

Next, I did the fairly predictable.  I primed it, Heirloomed whited it (ha ha, I just made it a verb) and added umber glaze.  I debated on doing this in bright pink or yellow for one of my daughters' rooms, which I still may.  I really think this would be so cute in a garden-themed girl's room.  You may be able to get away with this in a boy's room, too.  There were other garden creatures -- I believe a butterfly, snail, maybe a frog.

Since the frame was looking "vintagey" I printed a picture of Fun-Sized Chick in sepia.  I am so pleased with how it all came together.

If you copy this idea--and I hope you will--just don't enter it in the $5 Challenge!  Since I can't wait all week, I'm going to link with:




























(Edited to add:  I've been looking forward to Lindsay's $5 Challenge at Living With Lindsay.  It appeals to my competitive nature - anytime I see the word "challenge" little bells go off in my head {in a good way!}  Check out the other links there, I'm sure there will be lots of talent and creativity!  My other challenge entry is my River Rock Diffuser.)

 Finding Fabulous: