I hope that you saw my post yesterday of my Valentine’s Day Holiday Mantel. This week I am breaking down a few tutorials for you from my mantel. Today let’s talk frames. As you can see, I used a large amount of Valentines Day frames as part of my mantel’s holiday display. Let’s look at them in more detail, shall we?
Family pictures are my favorite type of decoration. I would choose them every time over a wreath, printable, or anything else, and that’s the truth! I picked a wedding pic of my handsome hubs and I, a beautiful “cupid” pic my dear friend took of my son as a baby (he will kill me for that someday, I am fully aware of that fact….), and a couple of pictures of my kids that I took during a Valentine’s Day Photo Shoot last year. I also turned one frame into a chalkboard and wrote on it with pink chalk. It’s simple! See exactly how I did it on my DIY Framed Chalkboard tutorial. Finally, I stuck this Free Chalkboard Valentine Printable into an 8×10 frame from The Diary of Dave’s Wife.
Today I’m going to tell you exactly how I made the two pink frames from $1 wooden frames from Michael’s, but the red ones were cheapie Walmart frames that I spray painted. I have learned that if you spray paint cheap frames they can bubble (as you will see below), but if you spray them with primer FIRST, then allow them to dry, and then spray them with color it works much better.
Alright, enough talk. Let’s see how I did it in pictures, shall we?
Start by spray painting the frames. I chose to coat them with a crystal clear coat so they would be shiny and pretty for my romantic mantel. 
Next I gathered up my crystal goodies. I found crystal strips of rhinestones, heart rhinestones, and heart stickers that included rhinestones at Michael’s.
I just love sparkle. It makes me happy.
I decided to use the lines of rhinestones to create an ombre effect. I love how it turned out.
On the other frame I used the rhinestone strips on the side, the foam sparkling stickers on the frame, along with using hot glue to attach one tiny heart rhinestone.
The spray paint bubbled a bit on the cheap frame, so I covered it up with the heart stickers and hot glued a heart shaped rhinestone onto the frame. I am glad that I did because it added a touch of cuteness, don’t you think?
Here are the finished products.
I hope you take some time to stop by the full post on my Valentine’s Day Holiday Mantel. Stay tuned for tutorials for the very simple to make heart garland and wrapped letters.
If you enjoyed this post then you may also enjoy the following posts:
Heart Attack: A Valentine’s Day Tradition
Sweetheart Pizzookie and a Colorful Magic Shell Recipe
Valentine Bling: A Glitter Necklace Tutorial
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Carolina says
January 18, 2014 at 1:34 pmThese frames are so much fun! And I love that you turned the “oops” of the spray paint bubbling into an awesome design element – I think it looks so much more fun with the hearts on it!
Sarah Westover McKenna says
January 19, 2014 at 9:57 amThanks, Carolina! I like it better too. It was a fortuitous accident. I love those!