Altered Ugly Picture

This is my altered "ugly" picture.

(Why, oh, WHY didn't I take pictures of this process?)

For quite some time, I had an arty project idea in my head for a piece I wanted to hang above our kitchen table. I wanted a large, ornate, white frame to match the cottagy look we've got going. I set about pricing custom frames, and came back reeling. Gack! Have you priced frames lately? Well, it was WAAAAY outta my budget, so I used my 50% of coupon for an ugly piece of pre-framed artwork. The frame was an equally ugly gold, but had good bones and potential to be lovely spray painted white.

After taking it apart, both frames got their white bath. The matte was covered in pieces with a dotty scrapbook paper, and some floral bouquets from another paper were clipped out to put in the corners. I covered the artwork itself with a paper of fine stripes, and added the floral borders down the sides. The text was printed out on my hand-dyed paper, of which I never seem to have enough. I tore out the individual words, and glued them down. The red letters are chipboard letters intended for scrapbooking, and add an element of dimension. Putting it all together was somewhat tricky. In the original artwork, the inner frame went UNDER the matte. I wanted it to go over top in mine. It made it a bit bulky, but it worked. It now hangs over our kitchen table.

The cast iron scroll work piece hanging above was a multiple hook thingy in it's former life. I took a drill to the hooks, removed them, (If you look closely, you can see the screw holes at the bottom) spray painted it to match, and presto - a wonderful art topper!

The lovely little couple are our salt and pepper shakers. They kept my picture company as it sat on the table prior to being hung.

At first, I wasn't sure what I thought of the finished piece. I gave it a little time to grow on me, and now I'm rather fond of it. Definitely adds a great deal of cheerfulness to the room. :)