“It’s a Cat Bed”
If you’re wondering what a fancy picture frame with jewelry (it seriously took me five tries to spell that and I still had to let auto-correct take over) hanging off it and a cat bed have in common, you’ll probably want to continue on reading to the part where I’ll reveal that
This project is embarrassingly old. I started this post about three months ago and then my computer froze and deleted everything I’d written and I just decided to give up and try for another day.
Now that day has arrived. Mainly only because I’m procrastinating doing payroll and mainly because a friend told me I should make dresses and sell them because of the wedding dress I made, which then reminded me I actually had a blog and also reminded me that I should probably write something on it before it became and archaic ruin filled with cobwebs and dust and irrelevant information that no one will ever read.
Let’s get on to the project shall we?
I’ve moved about a billion times at this point in my life, most of them being in the last year or two. Finding different ways to display my jewelry in each of my living situations was always a challenge. I had a piece of drift wood with hooks in it for a while, I had an Eiffel Tower wall hangy thing in the basement apartment, and then I pretty much jammed everything into some small bags and dealt with a tangled mess of earrings and necklaces any time I wanted to wear something. At long long last I finally was inspired by my friend to use a picture frame as a way to easily store and display all of my jewelry (I still cannot for the life of me spell this word.)
First, I needed a frame.
So I went to one of my favorite places, a thrift store and found this one for $6.
My goal was to find something really not too nice looking so I could cover it in spray paint or make it look better.
Actually, I really wanted to find a nice wooden frame that I wouldn’t have to do anything with. The chances of that happening, though were lower than being struck by lightning, surviving and then getting struck again on the same date at the same time in the same place exactly a year later and surviving again to then be bit by a mosquito and die two days later.
Needless to say I ended up with something that, were I to somehow ruin it with my delusions of grandiosity, I wouldn’t be overly heartbroken.
My goal was something similar to this.
I’m sure you can see why I thought I’d have at least a chance. After all, how hard can it be to recreate some leafy edges and decorative swirls?
Step 1…
Draw a tangled mess of swirls around the edge. This will be the template for where the hot glue will go.
Step 2
Realize that hot glue is not that precise.
Throw out the design that took a painstakingly long time to make look prefect and free hand the hot glue wherever you please (which turns into wherever it decides to go. Really there’s not too much control that can be achieved.)
That’ll turn out something like this.
If (unlike me) you don’t have a naturally occurring supply of cobwebs prevalent in your house or you need quick Halloween decoration, the hot glue strings left over from this work exceptionally.
I had a lot more than that little bit but it managed to camouflage itself with the real spiderwebs so well that I wasn’t able to find it.
Anyway, the final product looked mildly atrocious, but at the same time kind of interesting. Interesting enough that I almost felt bad that I was going to cover up all that raw talent with spray paint.
Almost.
But for the sake of the project it had to be done.
On to Step 3
The Spray Paint.
I’ve never bought spray paint before or used it. I guess I didn’t spend enough time applying myself to the correct hobbies during my teenage years.
For anyone who has never spray painted anything before here’s a few things to take into account before .
If the yard you’re painting in is not your own and you don’t think your landlords will love gold grass, put some cardboard under the picture frame. It’s best if it’s bigger than whatever you’re painting, but if that’s not possible or your don’t feel like mutilating the box because you may want to reuse it when you move, just use what you have.
It’s best to avoid spray painting in windy weather, if you decide to do so, or are unable to wait for a calm day, don’t stand downwind of where you’re painting. The paint will go anywhere the wind chooses to take it.
Make sure that when you leave the picture frame to dry it is in a secure place. e.g. not somewhere a small child will find it and carry it off.
Needless to say, I came inside, admired my golden hand, and proceeded to completely forget about my picture frame outside.
About a half hour later, there was a knock on my front door. I answered to my landlord and his two and a half year old daughter.
“Is this yours?” he asked holding out the picture frame.
“Yes, it is.”
“She just showed up carrying it around,” he said indicating his daughter.
“It’s a cat bed!!” she said with a toddler’s jump of excitement.
I thanked them for returning my cat bed, because I can’t think of it as anything else now.
Thus, the mystery of the title is solved. If that was all you were waiting around for then feel free to go about your day and I will take up no more of your time. Of course, the rest of the jewelry frame story is still to be told.
What are we on now? I think Step 4…
Step 4
Oh wait…
I decided the inside of the frame wasn’t big enough to hold all that I wanted it to.
So I ripped (very literally) the inner frame out of the outer frame (it was barely held on) and made some videos of me trying to pull the staples out. Which, by the way was super easy, the four I did before I started filming were a breeze. The remaining seemed to get a bit of stage fright at their big moment and wouldn’t budge. But, hey can you blame them?
Enjoy this completely useless video that really adds nothing to the story line.
And now:
Step 4.5
Procure some cork board.
If you can’t find the exact size you are looking for, or didn’t remember to check what size you’re looking for) go for slightly bigger and trim down. Take the inner frame that you mercilessly ripped from where it was so nicely nestled within it’s larger counterpart, and trace that onto the cork-board. This will ensure a perfect fit.
I used pencil for mine, which is why it doesn’t show up in the picture.
Cork board is made up of a thin layer of cork laid on top of a piece of particle board.
To cut through this along the lines you drew, all you need is a box cutter. Find a nice level surface such as a kitchen countertop and hang the soon to be unattached edge of cork board over it. Then, extend the box cutter and cut as close as possible to that line you drew. Many times. After cutting most of the way through you can flip the board over, score the other side along the line, and snap the piece off.
It makes a mess, but works with varying results.
Step 5
Pick a fabric covering for the cork board.
Step 5 3/4
Iron the fabric if necessary to get out any wrinkles it may have picked up after being stored in a box for who knows how long.
Step 6
Cut the fabric to around a half size bigger than the board.
Straight lines are precision cutting are not essential at this point.
Step 7
The stapler was by far the most effective securing device so I didn’t even bother trying the others even though that girl in the video suggested them.
Wrap the fabric over the edge of the cork board like a blanket that, no matter how much it gets rearranged, is too small to cover every inch in warmth.
Once that’s pulled tight, stab all the edges with as many staples as are necessary to secure it.
It’ll look something like this.
Oh and for the corners I did a couple extra staples just to hold the slightly more fabric present there.
As for how that corner seam was achieved, just fold and tuck and fold and staple.
Ta-da
Ok, the steps are starting to annoy me so we’re just going to go through the rest of this as if it’s all part of the last step.
Nestle the fabric enveloped piece of board snugly inside the frame.
From there spend some time debating how exactly you’re going to keep it inside the frame.
It turns out that the duck tape was a necessity after all.
I taped the perimeter and then stapled around the edges on the cork board as the tape just would not stick.
And… you can now breathe a sigh of relief as the front is far, far less atrocious than the back.
Lastly, I needed something to hang the jewelry from.
I had some multi colored tacks that got arranged pretty haphazardly on the bottom of this white box I had laying around (it’s other purpose is holding my letter writing paper) and spray painted gold. I didn’t necessarily want them gold, but, as we established earlier, I don’t have any other spray paint colors on hand.
A skip, hop, and a jump later… aaaand… shazam… a masterpiece (I mean cat bed) that is both functional and cute.
As I said, small collection, but there’s room to grow it a little.
Plus it looks really amazing on the wall. I only say that because the entire picture frame dove off the wall and into a fan at 2 am the other morning. It looked like a bomb went off in a jewelry store. There was glitter everywhere.
With that, I leave you, until the next time I create something to write about. Fare thee well.
