Meet Queen Elizabeth

When I laid my eyes on these beauties at a local thrift store, I practically ran to them and hugged them. Well, I didn't hug them but I lugged them (along with yanked and wobbled awkwardly) to the check-out.  Do you know how much I paid for my beauty queens?  3 bucks each.  3 bucks!

I've only finished one so far, but I'm hoping to work on my second soon and give it a similar (yet, still try something new) treatment.  Anyway, here is Queen Elizabeth (I named the mirror this because it kinda reminds me of a throne) before she was ready to be crowned:

Please forgive the blurry picture.  

Here's Queen Elizabeth after her day at the royal spa!

Pretty stately, huh!  I adore her, and she'll soon be given her place of honor (once we add the hanging hardware!).  I recently saw another mirror (quite like this one) at a furniture store for $1600.  Really.  It might take some time, paint, and patience but I think the exchange is worth it!

Here's some of the how-to basics (which I must give credit to Miss Mustard Seed for):

1). Prime

2). Slather on a good layer of paint.  I would recommend using a darker/brighter color.  This will be the color that shows through but is not prominent.  I chose the same color that I used for my chalkboard border (a greenish blue)

3). Dry brush a lighter color over the first coat.  I used a light gray for coat numero dos.

4). No picture for this (I'm not sure why...forgot, I guess), but get some glaze and paint it on.  Using a damp cloth (I gave baby wipes a try and they worked well!) work the glaze into the grooves and work with it until you get it how you like it.  I made my glaze with a mixture of glaze (which I found in the craft paint section of Michaels) and black and dark brown acrylic paint.    

5). Distress (if you want!)

6). Since I used flat paint, I wanted to give it a nice professional sheen so I added one coat of Polycrylic.  

That's it!  It really is simple--I love that this technique practically begs for imperfection!  Queen Elizabeth is most definitely my cup of tea!

Happy Friday!

Nicole

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