---CHOPSTICK MIRRORS ---

The circular mirrors I want from the HORCHOW COLLECTION are $6000.00 each and weigh like 40 pounds each.  Why is wall art and mirrors so heavy? And even though it's for life, there is no friggen way I would pay more then 50 bucks for any type of wall at ART any store... anywhere - EVER AGAIN! So I had to find or make something. I wanted a rough textured piece above my buffet; and I wanted it to be lightweight in-expensive, and easy to do. PLUS why the frigg is everything sooooooo heavy?

 So here is my fun in-expensive, lightweight ( but took a long time to make ) solution.

{=Please keep this in mind as U read.... I work messy and I give horrid descriptions. =}

 Yep, those are chopsticks surrounding those $2.00 Dollarrama mirrors.... Everything for this project came from the dollar store.

CHOPSTICKS - Loony Twoons Dollar Store = $1.29 for a package of 50 = ( I  bought 10 packs )
MIRRORS - Dollar Rama =  2 @ $2.00
WHITE FOAM BOARD - Dollar Rama - 4 @ $1.25
BLACK PAINT - on hand but usually 10 bucks for a quart at home depot

 I had a lot of those small bottles of Craft paint that can be found at the Dollar Rama here in Canada, but I deccided on the Black interior paint form the hardware store becuase I ahd alot left over from a few other projects I have recently completed.  I wish that I used a FLAT latex paint instead of this shiny satin black paint, though.

Some other stuff I used, foam brushes ( dollarrama ), glue sticks ( A LOT!!!,  probably 2 packages ) rulers etc.....

 I ended up grabbing 10 packages of the chop sticks becuase I needed to be sure I had enough to complete this project in the middle of the night, when I do some crafty things = I couldnt just run over to the dollar store at 3 a.m. !

I had some left over from my other chopstick mirrors,  I ended up having alot of excess chopsticks laying around but I already have crafty, crafty plans for those.

This project was alot of fun, it took a while to finish but I don't mind leaving  a project for a few days and returning later to do bits and pieces here and there. I finished this just after my star burst mirror, and am just getting around to posting it now. I took alot longer than I wanted it to, but I broke it up into small increments, and just took my time. I am so fortunate I have the space to have all my crafty things laid out, and very lucky I have a lovly DH who doesnt mind having bits of wood and glitter stuck to his socks ♥♥♥

 Here is a phot before painting.

So first things first. These mirrors came from the Dollar Rama, an awesome Canadian dollar store. I had considered purchasing 30 or so of these and crerating a feature wall in my living room, painting the frames black and creating a huge focal point. These are un-believable lightweight and I think would look cool in a grid of 5 by 6 mirrors.....

They could be held up by 1 tack.... 1 single tack, thats how light they are and

Here - I have removed the paper backing to unscrew the mirror. Getting GLUE GUN GLUE off of glass or mirror is very difficult. I later applied a piece of mac-tack (or shelf paper - whatever you call it)  to the mirror to prevent any glue gun glue or paint from adhering....

 I unscrewed the hanger thing....

Here I have laid out the foam board that I will be gluing the  chopsticks to, as well as mirror. 

I glued the two pieces of foam board together but butting the edged together... and taped it down to my work surface. I drew out some guidelines, many of the chopsticks are not perfectly square, so I just needed a rough guideline for placement.

Here I used  wooden skewers for the gap between my chopsticks.

 Here are my finished mirrors.

 I wanted the frame of my mirrors to have a rough surface, so I used plain white glue to adhere  newspaper to the frame. I then gave it a quick coat of a brown craft paint.

I hung these with wire..... Just plain garden wire. I made 4 cut-outs and looped the wire through those holes to hand these mirrors

I did this BEFORE  I attached the mirror to the foam board. I cut out a circular piece of contact paper, mack tack or shelf paper, whatever you call it, and affixed it to the mirror before I reattached it to the frame. I ten attached the frame to the foam board using wire, thorough these 4 holes, and used my glue gun to further adher the frame tot he foam board ( confusing? yes I know )

Here is my mirror adhered to the foam board.

THIS IS IMPORTANT: before I began gluing down the wood chopsticks, I did a 'dry' fit first. A few of the chopsticks needed to be whittled  down towards the center. It was not difficult as this is a soft wood. I used a box-cutter tot do this, then quickly sanded with this nail filing blok ( better then 95% of sanding sponges I have purchased ).

Here is 1/2 of the piece completed.

 Side View

Finished product - I made those bird cages too, with more BBQ skewers  & foam board!

Here is the finished piece before painting. I actually like the different shades and marbling of the wood, and wondered it i shoule stain it, instead of painting it a dark color.

 Profile

Here we are outside after painting. I had cut around the piece, and added a few layered of foam board to bulk it up. I wish that I had used BLACK foam board because you can see some of the white foam board peeking out underneath the chopsticks..... I think spray paint would be a better alternative to brush-on paint?

Here is a profile view of the sides of the piece, I used my leftover foam board to bulk up the frame....Just by usinf scrap pieces of foam board and layered them on top of one another using the glue gun to attache them

I used crepe paper to 'wrap' the foam layers, so it looks like 1 solid piece, I still wanted the chopstick edge to be visible. I loooooove the look of this crepe paper edge. I just used white glue to attach it, then applied another coat of white glue when it was dry.

Here is an outdoor sunshine photos, to show the edge of the mirror, also - this is a good photo of the texture around the frame of the mirror that I achieved my adding the paper to texture-ize it.

Finished....

♥

3 for $1 X-mas swans..... sort-of

I made this a while ago, and never got around to posting them.  I needed white swans for my Christmas tree but was only finding teenie-tiny white birds---- so I made my own. I used these lovely white feathered geese from my favourite dollar store in my town, and purchased feathers to attach to the geese. Then I used white glue and sprinkled on some glitter and added a few white opalescent sequins, too.

♥ I estimate that the cost of making 6 of these glittery swans was $4.00 CAD ♥

I am happy with how this turned out. Yes their feet and beaks are bright orange, so I might add some paint to downplay that. I'll be sure to add some photos when I get all my Christmas decor up.

After applying white glue- I used a fine silver glitter, and a clear rectangular glitter, too. (not sure what its real name is) but it is a faceted plastic glitter, it adds alot of sparkle without being too flashy.

the swans before the addition of the feathers, glitter and sequins....

....stuff I used;

white feather geese - 3 for $1.00 at the .99 cent store in my town
Package of white feathers - $1.29 at the .99 cent store in my town
silver and clear glitter that I had on hand
white opalescent sequins found at the thrift store in my town... ( .75cents for that container ===SCORE!)

gluesticks I had on hand.... working with the feathers was messy, becuase I cut them for the 'wings' but other than that, making 6 of these swans took approximately 30 minutes from start to finish.....  I had to have a 'break' to let the glue from the glitter dry before I attached the sequins. This was a fast craft project.

I am very happy with the results and have my white glitter swans for my tree this year. Of course, after I made this glittery swan - beautiful glittery birds and butterfly's started showing up at the dollar store....

 

♥

StarBurst Mirror

 

ummmm..... I probably should have cleaned that mirror a little better for the photos.... 

 

Thank you so much for posting THIS tutorial

So far I have linked this to an awesome blog 'Between Naps On The Porch', hopefully some one who wants to make one of these might find something useful in my experience....


Hanging this was a nightmare..... it is sharp, they are skewers used to pierce through veggies and such, so my # 1 instruction = BE CAREFUL!. Other than that making this things was a blast! I am always looking for lightweight artwork for my home, I like to change things with the seasons.  I own alot of art and decorative objects that I am no longer in love with = but am not ready to drop the cash on new items...... so thank goodness these fabulous decor bloggers and crafters have come into my life.

While I KNOW this would be even more fabulous as a darker colour I wanted to see how it would look as a bronze shade, instead of black or charcoal coloured like almost everything else I purchase = so I'm trying to branch out colour wise.

On my  skewer star burst, there are a few areas that are un-even but it looks so cool on the wall and I am so proud I made it using only dollar store Items! The lighting in my home is very dark I like it like that but it makes taking great photos very difficult So I am having a hard time getting great photos... Also I have not accessorized my FP mantle yet, so I just have plain photos of this lightweight inexpensive peice of art.

My instruction giving abilities need work, so hopefully what I have missed explaining can be made up in photos♥♥♥

The cost of this project

2 packages of 12 inch skewers @.99 each Loony Twoons Dollar Store
1 pack of 50 12 inch thicker skewers @.99 Dollar-rama Dollar Store
1 pack of Glue gun Glue @ 1.29 - Loony Twoons Dollar Store
1 circular mirror @ 2.00 - A Buck or Two Dollar Store

Because many of the skewers were crooked or cracked I needed two packages. So in total I estimate the cost to me for this project was under $10.00 = Yippee! It took a little longer than I expected but it was ALOT of fun. Most importantly it was LIGHTWEIGHT which means that it did not need to have an anchor bolt or heavy duty wall fixture. I used a tiny thin 1 1/2" screw.

I already had the paint and foam brushes but purchased the brushes and paint becuase I needed more for another future project { and to post what type of paint I use}. I used  a heavy duty pair or snipers, but you can cut these skewers with a pair of stronger scissors or any other means. I just happen to like those things strong green tin snips.


I laid out 12 of the thicker skewers, equally, then as I worked on each section, I cut the skewers accordingly. The measurements I used for my starburst mirror are,

12" = longest and largest skewer
10" = in-between each larger skewer
9" =
8" =
7" =

err...... umm....


I used a brightly coloured wax pencil to mark off the segments and also drew a line ( or circle... haha ) approximately 3/4" following the circumference as a guide line for the placement of the skewers.

Anyhoo - basically after dividing the star burst into segments. I started gluing the skewers into place. I tried to stop and take alot of photos as I anticipated adding this to my blog. I divided those segments with the 10"skewer, and divided those segments with the 7"skewer to try and keep things even.

I actually only used a tiny bit of glue while affixing the skewers onto the base, I wanted to ensure that if I made a mistake they would be easy to remove. It was very easy to add for glue later to really seal these skewers down. So far there have been no problems and this is hanging above my fire place. I did drop this one, and it hurt. Thankfully it did not pierce through my skin, but it hurt...,. so be careful when hanging!

 I am certain  I missed a few important steps and directions..... I will update when necessary♥

Supplies

this didnt work out as planned - thank goodness I had long thin screws and washers laying around

I had hoped that the 1/4" thickness along with the board and glue I would still be able to get away with using these things t fasten the face of the frame to the back ( with the skewers glued on = nope- didn't work.

Frame with back removed - I put the circular mirror in a safe place during this crafty project

I used the holes as rough guide lines ( time to buy a new 16" ruler = I got alot of use out of this one! )

I used the angles here to sorta get square.... didnt work due to the excess glue when I began gluing the skewers on, as well as the different dimensions of each skewer. They are roughly 1/4" inch thick, but alot were much thinner so it sorta threw my calculations out of whack. but it still turned out lovely.

Foam brushes and paints from the Dollar-rama

In order to pain this mirror frame and not apply the pain too thickly ( causing the detail to be lost) I used 3 thin coats of paint. I affixed a crude handle using a piece of cardboard, and took my time, laying on 3 thin coats. I actually used a blow dryer in between coats becuase I really, really wanted to finish this project.

2nd coat

Here is some designs I toyed around with. There are alot of different ways to make these. Alot of different ways to lay out your star burst. I am looking forward to seeing the patterns other people come up with

This is what I went with

Here are a few more photos of the placement and gluing the skewers on

I used a piece of cardboard to keep the skewers level, otherwise they would point out when it is face forward.

a photo to sorta explain how I arranged these skewers

Copious amounts of glue. I did use less glue than many of the other star-burst mirrors I have seen, becuase I used skewers instead of dowels, which are much heavier than skewers.

Filling in a few spots.......This is gluing the underside after all my skewers have been affixed.

All skewers are glues on, awaiting painting

Here I have laid the mirror on top to see my progress.... look'in good!

I painted the back first, using the paint I mixed up, and using a small foam brush.

Here it is painted, with 3 coats of paint, I took my time and was sure to cover all areas, when it was dry I applies Plaid Water Based Satin Finish Varnish, just for a little sheen. I used 2 thin coats  on the entire piece.

I had hoped I could get away with using the fastening system that this picture frame already had, but I ended up digging through my container of screws and finding 3 long similar dimension screws that were much longer than what originally came with this mirror. I needed to use washers and some other creative methods becuase the hole was now too big......

And here is the backside finished. I added small felt pads to protect my wall from the protruding screws, I also had to GENTLY bend the hanger thing to catch the screw I inserted into my wall to hang this.

♥