Project: Framed Africa Photos

We all know about what Chad wanted for his birthday and how it was coming along... but here is the entire rundown.

I started with these frames and had Chad select his favorite seven images. I then had the images printed in various sizes (Chad thinks the bigger the better) and in black-and-white.

Before starting any real work, I needed to make sure the images would fit. Obviously, there are a couple that needed a bit of help. Two of the larger frames needed matting and I had that cut by a local framer and it was really reasonable and she was super helpful in the process!

Before I painted, I also took the frames to a local glass shop and had glass cut for each frame. At this point, I still thought this project was going to be a breeze! On to spraypainting - since I was painting them all the same color, I wasn't concerned with overspray so I just put them all on a large piece of cardboard in the yard and went to town.
A couple of coats later, we have matching frames! Make sure you get all the edges, on the inside and outside!

Now comes the tricky part - putting the whole project together. I procrastinated a tiny bit and really pushed it down to the wire... like I finished them right before our families started arriving for the family BBQ. However, they were done and he was (and is) happy!

Finally, six of the seven are up on the wall where they are supposed to be. Chad loves it because he can look at them all the time... silly boy. Hopefully he doesn't think I am going to do this for every trophy he takes!

This one happens to be one of Chad's favorites. Partly because it is really big, the frame is large, but mostly because it is one of his favorite photos from the entire trip. Here's the problem - the frame is not made from your typical material. It is made of some sort of foam, weird material. The frame was just too cool to pass up and when I bought it, I didn't even have this project in mind! I am going to need some assistance hanging it - talking to you Dan! Let me know what you think :)

Here's the view of the area designated for the Africa frames... on the right-hand side where the fleur-de-lis is hanging is where the blesbok will hang - eventually.

The Africa frame project is done - kind of. One more to hang and we will be done! But for now, Chad can still check out his Africa trophies every day. I have some other ideas for frames in the near future - stay tuned, they do not include images from Africa :)

Linked at Perfectly Imperfect.