DIY Dollar Store Hack: Transform Frames into Elegant Vintage-Inspired Decor

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I'm not sure about you, but for me, finding cute vintage frames is half near impossible around me. We have a massive amount of resellers in my area that scoop up all the best things from the thrift stores and even facebook marketplace. They then resell vintage frames for about $20. Apparently I'm in the wrong business :) I have found some deals on these frames and those are the ones that are in my home right now, but I wanted a few more for some gallery walls I've been creating. Vintage inspired frames can be found on Amazon starting around $15 as well. I have bought many of those too. I then realized the other day how easy it would be to create my own vintage inspired picture frames for a fraction of the cost using a few supplies. 

See the full tutorial video here or read on below for the picture tutorial:

Supply list:

Cheap picture frames -I got mine from Dollar Tree

Applique molds (I used these ones here)

Hot glue (fave glue gun linked here)

Black acrylic craft paint

Rub 'n Buff in Gold Leaf (used this one here)

Step 1:

Add hot glue carefully into the silicone molds. Make sure to get into the corners, but try to keep the glue inside the mold itself. If a little bit goes over, that's alright, it can be cut off or pulled off later when it's dried. Have the glue set in the mold until it isn't hot to touch.

Step 2:

Release the glue from the mold, and you'll get something that looks a little like this:

This is the point that you will try to cut off excess strings and overflow, or pull them off if they can come of easily. 

Step 3:

Now take your frame and decide how you want it to look with the appliques in place. This mold set gives you a lot of variations of what you can do. Just make sure you make enough little pieces before hand :)

Step 4:

Once I figured out how I wanted the frame to look, I glued the hot glued molded pieces straight to the frame.

Step 5:

Paint the frame. I found that this way worked the best. There are a few ways to go about making these frames, which I did all off. But gluing the molds, then painting the entire thing with black acrylic paint gave the best results.

Once it's all painted, wait for it to dry. To quicken the process, use a hair dryer.

Step 6:

Now using a stippling brush, apply the Rub 'n Buff in Gold Leaf.  I like to use the stippling brush because it gives it a unique texture. 

You'll see it come to life! It's crazy! 

So, as I said before, I used a lot of ways to get this look. First I had painted the hot glue appliques then added them to an already painted and Rub 'n Buffed frame. That didn't work all the time since the hot glue would come off the golden frame easily. Next was to add the gold appliques to a not paintedframe...this works, but just causes an extra step because then you'll be painting black over some of the appliques when trying to paint the frame. So wasted product. The above ways work fine, I just found that the one in the full tutorial works the best:) 

That being said, I played around with some frames and how I wanted the baroque molds to look on them before making even more vintage inspired frames.

Here's a good before and after of these frames:

I love easy and cheap decor that creates character for my home. The cost per frames is definitely under $2. I love the Dollar Tree frames because they come in a load of sizes and different designs on the top to give many different looks for this project. Here are a few I have in my house now:

I can't decide if I like this silhouette here or the above one :) but it gives you another option on design.

I think my favorite ones are the 3x4 frames:

This picture actually has two of these dollar store vintage inspired frames:

Can you guess which frame I made with this tutorial on this wall? Looking at it now, it would be fun to do a round frame! They just didn't have any at the dollar store. I'll have to go on a hunt now to get a cheap one for this.

Here's a close up of one of the frames in the bookshelf.

And I had to add this cute little peek of a frame in my dining room hutch.

As for the pictures I used in the frames, some I made using a silhouette tutorial I'll share with you soon. The others I just found pictures of textiles I liked and printed them off to size :) 

Come back soon as I share more frame tutorials! January is apparently crafting month for me! Also be sure to check out that video for a few more tips on how to make these perfect! 

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