No Function Friday – Dollar Tree Frames

I may have mentioned it before, at some point along the line, briefly…I have a slight obsession with the Dollar Tree.

So, once again, this week’s ‘No Function Friday’ craft comes from, where else, the Dollar Tree.

You’ve probably seen these ugly frames. Or if not these, something just as awful I’m sure.

My first step was to spray paint my frames with Valspar Sky Blue.

And then I used good old plain craft paint in white and white washed my frames. I just kept going over it until I got a look I liked.

Now, the frames are perfectly fine like this…quite beautiful actually. So you could easily stop at this step. But, once again, I prefer an aged, weathered look. So, I kept going.

I rubbed my best friend, Ralph, all over the frames. Like this:

For those of you not familiar with Ralph…that would be Ralph Lauren Smoke Glaze which I purchased at Home Depot. It’s a little pricey, but I haven’t even made a dint in the can! It may seriously last me a lifetime and I’m not even kidding!

I put it on pretty thick, then wipe it off with a scrap towel. This will leave quite bit in the crevices. So, I take a super cheap-o small paint brush and kind of stipple the glaze around so it isn’t quite as thick in the crevices. That’s my technique…you may like the look with more in there.

This step you just keep repeating until you get aged look you want. I wasn’t getting quite enough, so I repeated probably three times.

Then once again I used my Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Walnut Stain and put it on my fingers and ran it around the raised portions.

Since this isn’t really meant for a frame, it’s really meant for paper and something with fiber, it takes awhile to dry. I let it dry at least one day. Then seal it with polyurethane.

And this is what you get!!

And

$1 EACH!!

If you had to buy the paint, that’s another $3 or so, but I had that on hand too.

So, here it one more time:

And

In case you were wondering…the first one is my favorite!! ;)

Until next time…

Oh, and I will be linking up this project to the following parties: