An unwanted frame into a much loved Chalkboard

Today I want to share how this fun chalkboard came to be....

I love garage sales and I am pretty cheap, so if there is ever a free pile that is where I go first.  Of course not all garage sales have free piles, but I LOVE it when they do.

Anyway, I stopped one day at a sale and was headed back to the van with no success, when I noticed a pile in the lawn that I hadn't seen before..."FREE" the sign said, "What! How did I miss that?"  I ran walked straight over because I knew someone was going to beat me to this huge awesome frame that was laying in the grass.

Phew!  I made it... without having to race anyone.   You know what I mean, as soon as you see something cool someone else usually beats you to it...I hate it when that happens!

Ok, I am rambling....I promptly picked up the frame and carefully set it in the back of my van smiling hugely inside!

The only thing wrong?  I guess because the nails holding in the glass had fallen out except a couple, so the glass was not set in the frame....easy fix!

I have a few in process shots (pre-blogging days) so here you go!
I almost wonder why I painted it, it was so pretty...oh well.  You will notice my sweet daughter, she was quite miffed that the chalkboard was not going into her room, so I went and scrounged up an old frame I had, to make her a chalkboard too (that is the small one in the middle, I believe it is a 9x13 frame).  Problem solved.
I was working on some other projects at the time.... so the arrows are pointing to the frames, and the glass.  I used black chalkboard paint for the glass that went in the big frame, and my own chalkboard paint on the glass that went in the small frame (I did three coats of each).  The frames got spray painted with leftover spray paint I had.
My boys love it!  It is fun to see what cool pictures they draw... and I love that they are using the chairs I made them too.

So take my advice...
There are so many cool things you can do with frames, chalkboards being the obvious!  I have my own personal stash, just waiting to be make into something useful or just waiting for the right picture...

Have you made anything from an old frame lately?  I'd love it if you shared!

Mindi

I will be linking to these parties.