Frame That Makeup!

This is the magnetic makeup-storage frame that my daughter Becca and I made for her new home.  It’s about so much more than the crafting steps that went into it!

It’s a challenge to get creative — with actual craft supplies — when you are travelling, moving homes, on a broken budget, just getting started in life, or short on time. We were dealing with all of those last month, but we’d made a decision to craft at least one thing together for her new apartment in Arizona.  We actually had made seized the time on our last day there together and got not just one, but TWO projects done! This magnetic board is the first.

We didn’t see the need to buy sandpaper, even though the frame needed a light sanding. Why not? We used a piece of brown cardboard instead — works great as fine-grit sandpaper.

It was about 8pm when we started, and it was a cool dry 90 degrees outside so she painted on her balcony. Believe me, it felt wonderful outside! Because the paint dried almost instantaneously, it was going on streaky — this actually saved us a step of sanding some off for a distressed look!

We found the frame at Goodwill, magnet tape and glue sticks at the craft store, a picture hanging kit at a discount store.   Becca had paint, sponge brush, glue gun and hand tools. Oh, and the makeup!

Then we went to the big-box hardware store for tin snips and metal. We unfortunately fell for the sheet metal loophole and ended up spending a LOT of money for far too heavy of a gauge metal than needed. We should have double checked this while we had wifi that day.  Go. To. The. Ductwork. Department! Either way, I knew I was bringing home a set of small but strong metal snips.

I used the double collage mats from the frame to measure the metal for cutting, and then we used them as the backer, too. That felt pretty clever! The back looks awful, not that anyone’s going to see it.  (did I really say that? except for everyone who reads this!) To anchor the two pieces of metal together I piled on a huge bead of hot glue where they overlapped on the back; the overlap on the front is hard to notice.

We used pieces from the picture hanger kit to add a sturdy wire across the back, and hung it in the bathroom on a heavy duty picture hook.

Here are some tips on applying  sticky-back magnet tape from a roll: clean off the makeup container, unroll the tape ahead of time to flatten if you can, use big enough pieces especially on the heavier items, and realize that at 85 degrees inside, it might not stay stuck very well at first ;)

This was a fun challenge, and we’re pretty happy with the results. I am ready to make more!

Gail