Hi there. I’m Felicity from Crafty Modern and I’m totally jazzed about participating in Jessica’s "Mad for Mad Men" Series. I’m a huge Mad Men fan. And I had a blast coming up with an idea. I created personalized wall pieces that are meant to be fun and silly (they made my husband smile huge and laugh a bit too).
I’m a junkie for matching mid-century modern wall art . And I’m afraid I’m remiss at doing more things with our family photos. So I thought this would be the perfect project to merge scrapbooking and kitschy home decor. I even found the perfect wood frames at Michael’s (they’re balsa wood frames actually to use for mosaics and they are $3.99 a piece with wall mount brackets already on the back).
Supplies needed:
Mod Podge (I used Gloss but Satin will work too)
Brushes Specifically for Applying Mod Podge (so not your fancy paint brushes)
Assortment of Acrylic Paint (I use Folk Art and Martha Stewart Paints from Plaid)
Assorted Scrapbooking Papers in Retro Looking Prints
Scissors
Paper Towels
Two Wood Mosaic Frames (originally I was going to use two sheets of ply and add my own picture brackets)
Small thin wood squares (or any funky shape you like)
Plain White Copy Paper or Scrap Pieces (for cutting your patterns 1st)
To achieve a 1960’s coloration for my background, I first painted the inside of the balsa frame a lovely citron-like green, two coats. After both coats were dry I took a wet paper towel, squirted a little robins egg blue paint on to the towel and rubbed that over the green. Then a dry paper towel to rub off excess paint.
I painted the edges of the frame a deep black. This is quite typical of a lot of the Asian inspired home pieces of the 1960s. I painted little balsa squares with a shiny copper metallic paint (the squares are for added dimension).
For the paper pieces, I free hand cut out patterns pieces from scratch paper and played around with different looks until I had what I liked. Then I traced each piece on to my scrapbook papers, and cut them all out.
Our house color palette is green, brown, blue and orange predominately. So I worked with those colors when creating the pattern pieces. The hands, feet and and hair were cut from textured unbleached thin cardboard. I cut out our faces from photos I printed. Then everything, including the little copper squares, were attached to with Mod Podge. I covered the entire inside of the piece with Mod Podge. The final step was adding a coat of glossy acrylic to the black portion of the frame. And done.
This would be a fun and personal gift to give for an anniversary, wedding, or house-warming gift (you can never go wrong with some homemade kitsch right?). Want more vintage inspired crafty and home ideas? Come on over and follow the Crafty Modern blog. And enjoy the Mad Men season premiere.
Thanks so much, Felicity! I have to say that the little martini glass is my favorite part of the project! Make sure you stop by Crafty Modern and show Felicity some comment love!
On Crafty Modern you will find an eclectic selection of creative goodness: reviews of vintage needlecraft books, gorgeous handcrafted wall art, and suggestions for fun iPhone apps! How’s that for variety?!
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