Valentine Picture Frame DIY

I picked up this folding picture frame at the local thrift store. It had a very light stain on it. It didn't look very interesting, that's for sure. But I have one like it at home, in a dark stain, and I use it. So I figured, why not...

I was just going to paint the frame and call it good. Give it a fresh color and move on. But I was monkeying around with a few layouts one day and I decided to see what something would look like. And thought I'd give it a try.

I first removed all the glass and painted the frame and waxed it. I then cut some leftover canvas material that I had laying around to fit the picture areas and painted them in Annie Sloan Chalk Paint™ (Primer Red). I really like the way the chalk paint looks on this particular canvas, which is actually banner material. When painted, the back has a great texture!

The trickiest part of the project was getting the layout to work with the Coco heart on 4 separate pieces. Measuring between each panel so I would be sure to get the heart to line up, I laid the design out and cut my stencil. I applied those and painted the hearts and lettering. I used Coco and Old White Chalk Paint™  and also some pink acrylic that I had on hand. 

The only thing left to do was assemble the pieces back into the frame. I kept the glass out of the 4 left sections but put them back in the last section. (I cut out some cute magazine pics and inserted those for the photos. Figured that was easier than cutting up pics of my own kids!)

And the project was done. Cute, if I do say so myself. I'm beginning to wonder why I didn't just use pics of my own kids in there. That could be my excuse for keeping this little treasure! :)