The new old frame

A few years ago, I found this beaut in Dustin's stuff after we bought our house.

Does she give you the willies as much as she does me? I cannot make eye contact with her. It is partially her expression and partially the fact that she is seemingly floating above the water. Creeps.. that's what I get when I look at this. Yes, I am sure I am just being unappreciative, but that still doesn't change the fact that she gives me goosebumps.

But, she has a cool wooden frame. It is 12 by 22.5, so I've not touched it until this week. Until now, I haven't had anything to put IN the frame to replace creepy floating girl and, to be completely honest, we halfway joke that she might haunt us when we touch her frame.Apparently she has the same effect on Dustin.

So far, so good... but, I still have the heebie jeebies.

The frame didn't have a bad paint job, but it was a little dirty looking and the dark color is actually glittery gold that I could live without. And, it was painted on pretty heavily and not super neatly. So, this weeekend, I gathered my courage and sprung her from her frame.

First, I gave it a good, clean base coat of satin white. It's what I had, so that's what she got. Then I dry brushed some Anita's All Purpose Acrylic Nubby Linen over it.

It wasn't quite enough for me, so I then dry brushed some Anita's Espresso Bean across it. 

 

Not the best pics taken, but hopefully they show the difference enough. After the Espresso Bean, I thought I had it on a bit heavy, so I wanted to mute it down a smidge. So, I dry brushed on a light coat of Americana's Bleached Sand. That detail doesn't capture well, so I won't post a picture and see if you can find all the differences :) It is a bit off white/light khaki, so it toned it all down a bit while still giving it some color over the white base.

It sounds like this process took a while. It took me about 3 minutes to paint it white. I let that dry and then it took me about 8 minutes total to do the drybrushing. It dries super fast, and I didn't mind if they mixed a little anyway. 

A close up of the new look..
 

It might not look incredibly different before and after, but, I got rid of the gold and gave it a bit more depth with the different shades of browns.  And, it just has a cleaner paint job on it now. 

I need to put the finishing touches on what is going to inside the frame. It has been a work in progress for a while now. It is pretty large and I've been trying to get the colors just right. I took a poem I love, found a great piece of clip art and have been playing around with colors, fonts, details to get it just right. Hopefully I'll have it in the frame for tomorrow and can include completed befores and afters.

Work/study break is over... back to essay grading and essay writing! :)