I Altered Something

Last weekend, a friend had a few of us over for a crafty afternoon. Since I am still largely packed (not unpacked enough to be planning an afternoon away), I decided to do something completely out of character for me: I altered something! I KNOW!

While I was packing in Maryland, I discovered a cork board I'd purchased and forgotten about, and instead of giving it away, I kept it to use in my new kitchen. So that became my afternoon project. I took an insane amount of step photos, so I'll start boring you with them now.

First, here is the cork board, fresh out of its shrink wrap:

And the back:

I'm showing you the back because I did all my work here before I even touched the front. My mama didn't raise any fools. I took all the step photos of the front, though. Well, all but one. I missed a photo of the front with the Gesso, so that will be a pic of the back.

The first thing I did was protect the front panels with paper and masking tape:

Why yes, that's packing paper. I might have a lot of it laying around. There's just so much I can cram into the recycle bin every 2 weeks. 

I used two rolls of the masking tape to raise the piece up off the paper, because knowing me, I'd paint the thing to the paper and it would be such a mess:

 I flipped it over to the back and did the Gesso step to prime the cheap, shiny faux wood:

Like I just said a few blathering sentences ago, I did all my painting on the back to make sure it went the way I wanted it to, then I repeated it all on the front.

Note: For these pics, I applied the color to the top of the frame and took the picture to show the contrast between the new paint and the previous layer. 

Let's look at those layers of color.

First layer: Peeled Paint:

Here you can see the Peeled Paint on top of the Gesso layer. I was going for a distressed look, so I did a messy job on purpose. :)

After that dried (I did a LOT of waiting for paint to dry that day), I decide it was too yellow-green, so I added a layer of Antique Linen to lighten it a bit:

Still with the messy approach, but I liked how the previous color showed through the new layer of paint.

Better, but still kinda yellow, so I added a layer of Bundled Sage:

That lightened and de-yellowed it a lot, and I really liked it! Here it is all un-taped and drying:

Today I finally got some temporary, non-nailed-in hooks to hang it with (with which to hang it) - thanks to Tina for that awesome suggestion!

Before I could hang the thing, I needed to add hooks to the frame. I found some old screw hooks in my trusty tool box, and put them in to the top of the frame:

Please note the added distressing I did with my finger nails:

Bonus! ;/

Here is the final product hanging on my kitchen door:

and the handsome hook:

It's one of those 3M temporary hooks. Between the temporary hook and the screws in the top of the board, I'm about ready to start a pool for the date and time this thing comes crashing down.

Also, the board kinda sways, so I'll have to put something on the bottom to secure it better.

Then I added stuff to it to initiate it:

The calendar was from the Welcome Wagon Lady (yes, they still have those!), and I'll use it to keep track of my busy social calendar now that I'm retired. The handsome thumb tacks and magnets you see here came with the board. I have big plans to make some cute magnets (also Tina's idea - she is so smart!) with some of the glass pebbles and bottle caps and other stuff in my stash. Stay tuned for when I find and unpack those.

I think this turned out pretty okay! :)

In other news, I got a second hook for another door and finally hung up the FANTABULOUS wreath that Mary Dawn made for me as a housewarming gift:

My photo does NOT do it justice! You can see MD's pics at this ABNH post. I might love it.

Also, I've finally mostly unpacked my kitchen, and Bobra helped:

:)

Thanks for stopping by!

Links to the paints I used:

InLinkz.com