"Magic Mirror on the wall who's the fairest one of all?"
(Snow White and the Seven Dwarves; 1939)
They say that when you break a mirror, 7 years of bad luck will be upon you. But the mirror will not always burst into pieces when falling. Sometimes it can only cause the frame to break apart. You can fix it by using some glue but sometimes it’s not enough. That’s how you get a piece of silver glass, which doesn’t look too fabulous and, what is more, you can get hurt because of its sharp edges. Not used for months, it lays somewhere you don’t look and finally, when it’s found, you decide to throw it away. I’ll show you today how you can give it a “second chance” and transform it into a cute little dressing table. The idea is mine but inspired by those photos.difficulty: hard
estimated time: 2-3 days
What you need:
- a mirror without a frame (I used a rectangular 7x10 cm [2.8x 4.0 in] one)
- a stiff piece of paper (thin cardboard)
- wallpaper scraps (with a simple pattern)
- color paper (it should fit the color scheme of the wallpaper)
- a piece of skirting board around 2 cm [0.8 in] wide (simple design)
- a piece of hard cardboard
- matches
- border adhesive
- silicone adhesive
- white glue
- a bottle of water with a sprayer top
- a paintbrush and a toothpick for applying adhesives
- pencil, ruler, scissors
- trinkets as you wish
Tutorial steps:
1. Regardless if your mirror is round or rectangular, cut out a square of 20x20cm [7.9x7.9 in] from the stiff piece of paper. If you have got a bigger mirror, you can make the square larger. It will be a foundation for your work. Then, cut out a slightly larger (at least 1 cm [0.4 in] on each side) square from the piece of wallpaper.
2. Put the foundation on the white side of the piece of wallpaper and fold its edges along the edges of the base. Press them strongly with your hand. Remove the base from the wallpaper and mark intersections of the bends with a small spot. It will make it easier to find the previous position of the base when they will be glued together.
3. Moisten the wallpaper square by spraying it with water. Thus, the wallpaper will absorb the adhesive better and adhere stronger to the base. After that, you should give the wallpaper few minutes to soften. Then, carefully spread it with the border adhesive (wallpaper adhesive would be too weak in this case and it contains too much water – it would crumple the paper).
4. Put the base on the wallpaper, so that its corners touch the spots you made before. Press the whole area of the base with your hand to make sure it’s well adhered. Fold the wallpaper along the edges of the base and glue them too. Cut off the protruding pieces of paper in the corners where the wallpaper has been folded. Put the square under a big heavy book and leave it for the night to dry.
5. Cut out a square of the cardboard, size depending on your base – it should be 4 cm [1.6 in] wider than the base, so in this case 24x24 cm [9.4x9.4 in]. Saw a piece of the skirting board equal in length to the shorter dimension of the mirror plus 2 cm [0.8 in] and four pieces equal to the edges of the cardboard square (with an angle of 45° to make a frame).
The cardboard piece will be used to stiffen the picture. The skirting board will be used as a frame (4 pieces) and a dressing table top (the small one).
6. Using the silicone adhesive, glue two matches in the corners of the piece of the skirting board which will be used as a dressing table top. Leave it for a few hours to dry.
7. Copy the shape of the mirror on the color paper. Then, draw two more rectangles or circles (depending on the shape of the mirror): one bigger outside and one smaller inside - it will be a frame of the mirror, which will cover the sharp edges and make it look nicer. You can make a more complicated shape of the frame or decorate it with a sticker, like me.
8. Using the silicone adhesive, glue the mirror to the center of the base covered with wallpaper. You don’t need to spread the adhesive accurately, few spots near the edges will do. Don’t put it too close to the edges, though - if you pressed the mirror to the paper, silicone would come out from under the mirror and stain the picture.
9. After that, using the white glue and the toothpick, glue the paper frame from step 6 around the mirror.
10. Glue the picture to the cardboard piece from step 5 using the white glue. Then, glue the elements of the frame from step 5 around the picture. Smear the edge of the dressing table with silicone adhesive and put it under the mirror, so that it looks like it’s standing on the floor (not flying in the air :P). Once again we wait for a few hours for the adhesive to dry.
11. Using the white glue, attach the two other table legs – this time to the wallpaper. Add some cute decorations of your own and that’s it!
Downloadables:
- Printable version (PDF)
Next week: A t-shirt with your favourite motif in 10 minutes!
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